


Home

by KinomiAkai



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Complete, Eventual Smut, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romance, Sexual Content, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:39:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8398372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinomiAkai/pseuds/KinomiAkai
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke made their way through university as roommates (and friends). Graduation should have pulled them apart...so how did they end up here? AU, Sasunaru/Narusasu. Complete!





	1. Moving In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters. It's a damn shame, too!

"I still can't believe you did this," Naruto said, his bag threatening to fall off of his shoulder as he stared up at the veritable mansion before him.

"I liked it," Sasuke shrugged, already moving to get their things out of the car.

" _I liked it_ ," Naruto mocked, waving his hands a little, "I'd like a Mercedes, too, while you're at it—"

Sasuke unceremoniously threw a duffel bag at Naruto's chest, sending Naruto to the ground with an "oof!"

"Are you going to help or am I going to be living alone after all?"

"Asshole," Naruto replied, but he dutifully stood, picking up the bags around him and stopping by the car for more. Sasuke took a moment to shake his head at the blonde desperately trying to fit the key in the door, bags swinging from his arms, balancing his stack of boxes with the other arm and some careful leg work.

Well, if the dobe was going to flaunt how strong he was, he could carry it _all_. Sasuke set to unpacking the truck and building up a nice pile for Naruto to take up.

* * *

"Aahhh," Naruto collapsed onto a pile of boxes, sighing. Sasuke closed the door behind him and looked around the large, still fairly barren, house.

"You didn't unpack any of it," he remarked.

Naruto's head swiveled around, and he looked about as incredulous as someone could with half of their face squished against a plastic box. "I brought this all in! _You_ ought to unpack it," he grumbled, but the smirk that lazed across Sasuke's face made it impossible to be angry.

"I unpacked the truck," Sasuke shrugged, "and how exactly am I to unpack the boxes you are laying on?"

"Work around me," Naruto's grin squished his cheek into the box even further, and Sasuke snorted.

"Lazy," Sasuke smirked, heading for the box that Naruto's head currently rested on.

"Noo," Naruto sat up enough to cling to it, "let me rest, teme."

Sasuke sighed and looked at Naruto. Serious, but warm, blue eyes blinked back up at him, and Sasuke was undone.

"Fine," Sasuke said, sitting on the box beside Naruto. Naruto gave him a tired grin and rolled on his side, closing his eyes. Sasuke looked at him for a moment – no doubt, within a minute the dobe would be asleep – and shook his head.

"What an idiot," Sasuke muttered to himself, arranging some boxes so he could lie down comfortably.

"I heard that, bastard," came the muffled, slurred reply. Sasuke grinned, and let his eyes close.

* * *

When he opened them, it was dark outside, and Sasuke cursed himself. He should have never let Naruto talk him into letting him rest – he knew they were both exhausted and they could have been completely moved in by now—they both had to work tomorrow, and—

"Hey, you're up!"

Sasuke blinked towards the noise, and then the lights were turned on and he was promptly blinded. He made a pained noise, holding a hand in front of his eyes.

"Ooh, sorry," Naruto said sheepishly. "Um," he scratched the back of his neck, "you seemed really tired, so I just let you sleep."

Sasuke stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up, and then immediately looked away—Naruto was wearing nothing but pajama bottoms that were riding dangerously low on his hips.

"You've…you've already moved in?" Sasuke looked around.

"I grabbed most stuff—not what you're sitting on obviously, and I don't know about like, bedroom stuff," Naruto seemed a little flustered, "I didn't really know where you wanted everything, but—"

"I'm sure it's fine," Sasuke waved a hand, a wave of relief washing through him as he realized he didn't now have to unpack everything they had brought. "How long was I out?"

"Uh," Naruto checked the time, "it's seven o'clock now, and we got here, what…at ten? I slept until two, I think."

Sasuke stared at him and then stared at his own hands. He hadn't realized he had been so obviously exhausted. "I can't believe I slept that long," he said, mainly to himself.

"Me either," Naruto grinned. "C'mon, help me get the rest of this stuff together."

* * *

"Sakura says hi, by the way," Naruto said, as they were moving another piece of furniture that Naruto had placed in an incredibly wrong place—at least, according to Sasuke.

"Sakura? When did you talk to her?"

"She called when you were asleep. Wanted to know how the move was going," Naruto lied. Actually, he had called her after he had woken up, walked around the giant-ass house, and realized this is where he was going to fucking _live_. He had taken one look at the pool—their own pool—and lost it. He talked to Iruka (his foster dad), and then Kakashi (his other foster dad, whom Iruka had put on the phone), and then Sakura (who had known him since primary school)...he was the most level-headed for the last one. It was a bit much for a kid who had grown up in an orphanage and gotten into university on a sports scholarship. Pretty much the first thing he had picked up on about Sasuke was that he had money, but he hadn't any idea just how _loaded_ the Uchiha was until he had casually remarked he bought the house Naruto had been drooling over since he accidentally saw it on their house hunting adventures. The whole thing had been a bit wild, really…

* * *

_**(University, Six Months Ago)** _

_Naruto smiled for another photo with another friend he had made—he was going to get one with absolutely everyone by the end of the day. He spotted a glimpse of pale skin and black hair and quickly excused himself._

" _Sasuke!" He called into the crowd. The figure stopped and turned around, and Naruto ran up to him. "Let's get a photo!"_

_Naruto grinned and fiddled with his phone, but a hand grabbed his wrist._

_Sasuke was frowning. "No."_

_Naruto blinked. "…no?"_

" _I don't like photos," Sasuke let go of Naruto, an odd look on his face._

" _That—I'm not going to post them anywhere, it's just for me! Make an exception, Sasuke!" Naruto practically bounced on the spot. "I'm not going to be able to see you anymore, so I—"_

_Sasuke's frown deepened, and he turned away._

" _Hey! Bastard!" Naruto grabbed his arm before he could move further, "I'm talking to you!"_

" _I don't want to talk to you," Sasuke's voice was like ice, and it made Naruto let go of his arm. He walked away, a pain settling in his throat…and then he was fiercely grabbed, spun, and the pain was in his nose. He doubled over, hands over his nose, blinking furiously. He really ought to have expected that from Naruto, but his mind had been a flurry of annoyance and panic all day—to hear Naruto casually accept what he had been so distraught over…his eyes narrowed and he put his hands down, scowling at the blonde._

" _What the fuck, Sasuke," Naruto breathed, voice quieter—as if he was startled that Sasuke was still angry._

_Sasuke's face twisted. "Go away, Naruto. I don't want to see you—" he cut himself off before he said 'either', "I don't want to see you. Leave me alone."_

_But Naruto, infuriating as usual, barely reacted. After a moment of squinting slightly, his head leaned back and he crossed his arms._

" _Pull the other one."_

" _What?"_

" _Pull the other one," Naruto challenged. "I call bullshit."_

" _Fuck off," Sasuke went to turn around again, but Naruto's voice caught him._

" _Really, Sasuke? Running away?"_

_Sasuke spun back around, ready to be furious, but found the anger just…wasn't there. He stared at Naruto with wide eyes and tight lips._

" _What's this actually about?" Naruto—always calm at the worst of times—examined him patiently. Had he known that over the four years of living together, his roommate would learn to read him like a book, he would have fought for the single room much harder._

_Sasuke didn't answer._

_Naruto laughed, and it broke a little. "I'm going to miss you, you stupid, stubborn bastard. Give me a damn photo so I can put it up on my stupid wall."_

_Sasuke crossed his arms. "Why?"_

_Naruto looked uncomfortable._

" _Do you even have a place to live after this?"_

_The blonde shrugged. "I'm going back to stay with my parents until I get enough money from this new gig."_

" _That's stupid."_

" _The fuck you—"_

" _Two hours commute. You should just stay with me." And then he turned tail and walked away so briskly that Naruto nearly couldn't see him when he broke out of shock._

_Sasuke wanted to scream and throw himself off a bridge for how messily he had fucked up the day, but when an out of breath Naruto caught up to him, and with big, hopeful eyes, asked if he had been serious—all he could feel was happy._

* * *

And then they had begun looking at houses, and Naruto had gotten lost in the listings and stumbled across the beautiful, far too large, luxurious house and promptly made the view of the pool his desktop background. Goals, he had said—for when he really worked his way up through the marketing company that had hired him.

Then Sasuke hadn't returned any calls for a few days, and when he finally went out of his way to look for the bastard, said bastard called him up and said he had bought them a house.

He was pissed, until he found out which one it was.

"Tch," Sasuke said. "Did you tell her I made you do all the work? I bet she didn't believe you." Sasuke's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

Naruto laughed. "You're right, she didn't." Actually, that was another lie—she had completely believed that Sasuke was asleep because Naruto wouldn't have called for her advice if he hadn't been. His parents…his parents were who he called when he hadn't any idea of what he was doing, or who he was going to be. Sakura was who he called if he hadn't any idea what other people meant to him—or, especially, what he meant to them. He had been talking to her a lot since Sasuke had asked him to move in with him.

"There," Naruto said, when they finally got the table into Sasuke's bedroom. Naruto had put it in the bathroom, much to the Uchiha's dismay.

"What about all the furniture that's already here?" Naruto asked. "Is the old owner going to come pick it up or something?"

"The old owner of the house? No. This furniture is from the staging company that decorated the house. I bought what suited the place already." Sasuke shrugged. "No sense in buying new furniture if there were already perfectly good pieces here."

Naruto found himself unable to do anything but nod, as he often did when Sasuke talked about money—somehow, Naruto had been convinced that what they were bringing with them would have been it: no purchasing new furniture involved. God knows Naruto didn't have the money for new furniture.

"So you've dibs-ed this place," Naruto indicated to the bedroom. "Where should I sleep?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Pick a place. It's getting late."

Naruto laughed. "Don't tell me you're tired after that ridiculous nap you had."

Sasuke snorted. "No, I guess not. I'll come with you." It came out as more of an order than anything else, but Naruto grinned and happily followed the Uchiha.

"There's the one right beside me," Sasuke remarked, opening the door and looking around. The room was pretty plain, but they all were—staging companies didn't leave much room for character lest it be the wrong type for the prospective buyer. "And then there's two more across the hall. I think they're all roughly the same size."

"Yeah, I looked at them. I looked through the house when you were asleep," Naruto grinned and Sasuke's cheeks warmed a little. "This one's fine." Naruto said—fine was an understatement; it was amazing, it was huge and bright and lovely (a little boring but Naruto could _paint it_ and make it his own because this was _his house now_ and—)

"You sure?" Sasuke sounded surprised. "There's a partition door there," Sasuke indicated the door in between their rooms. Naruto hadn't seen it before.

"I mean," Naruto went and opened it, and then closed it again. "It's not like it's see-through. And there's a lock on it," he gave the lock an experimental twist.

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it; I lived with you for four years. I just figured you didn't notice." He smirked, and Naruto blushed.

"Whatever, teme. I'm gonna go get my stuff." Naruto went back downstairs, and Sasuke eyed the partition door for a moment longer before following.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! I'll be posting a chapter a day, with a total of 9 chapters, providing I don't make any last minute changes or anything!
> 
> See you tomorrow!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	2. Housewarming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters. If only...

"You brought wine?" Naruto was surprised.

"Isn't that how you break in a new house?" Sasuke asked.

"I wouldn't know," Naruto said, "do you have beer?"

"Neither would I. And obviously not. When have I ever had beer?"

Naruto laughed. "I dunno, you seem to have thought of everything."

"I always think of everything."

"Arrogant bastard," Naruto laughed again and eyed the wine. "So fancy!" He muttered.

"You think all wine is fancy."

"Because it is. That shit is expensive."

"All liquor is expensive. If you really wanted to save money, you would go sober."

"Pah!" Naruto waved a hand. "What kind of lazy slacker would I be then?"

Sasuke chuckled, and reached for the cups they had unpacked. He frowned. "The wine glasses must still be in the boxes. Actually, I'm not sure we even brought any…"

"That's fine!" Naruto grinned. "Let's use these!" He pulled out two of the cheesy mugs that he had bought Sasuke—one of many mugs stamped with various grumpy messages like "Good morning, I see the assassins have failed" and "Unless this cup is empty, don't talk to me". Sasuke, a known coffee guzzler, had been forced to use them many a time when they hadn't gotten to the dishes yet, and Naruto had never failed to get a kick out of it.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but obediently set out opening the bottle. "You're fine even though you have an early morning tomorrow?"

Naruto grinned, "my nap wasn't as good as yours," Sasuke glared, "but yeah. Everybody knows I'm moving in today so they all expect me to be tired."

"What about hungover?" Sasuke filled the mug.

Naruto laughed. "Probably that too!"

"Then here you go," Sasuke passed on to Naruto, who grinned.

"Cheers!"

* * *

Pleasantly warm, and far too late, they were getting ready for bed. Sasuke was about the same drunk as he was sober, only he pretty much had a constant smirk plastered on his face and the comments that he would make tended to be ones that sent Naruto into fits of giggles. Not that it was hard to make drunk Naruto laugh; the blonde was full of smiles and laughter and jokes—all of it becoming more incomprehensible as the night went on. Naruto was the life of pretty much any party he went to…except when he drank whiskey; whiskey was a definite no-go for Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

_**(December, Two Years Ago)** _

_"Where'd Naruto go?" Sasuke asked the first person he saw, just assuming the blonde would be known to everyone there. He was right._

_"Um, I think he went outside. I haven't seen him in a while," she said._

_Not bothering to thank her, he promptly turned back around and walked through the door he came in. Naruto had been drunk texting him for about an hour, making less and less sense, until Sasuke had finally just decided to go and pick the idiot up and take him home. He had clearly had too much._

_"Oi, dobe!" He called into the darkness._

_He waited a moment…no reply._

_"NARUTO!" He called louder, scowling._

_"..-suke?" He heard just the end coming from his left, and looked into the woods that brimmed the property. What had possessed the idiot to go in there?_

_But before he had to go looking himself, the blonde came out to meet him. His eyes were wide and red-rimmed, and Sasuke stared at him in disbelief._

_"Are-are you okay?" He asked, confused and worried and suddenly furious at what someone could have possibly done to make Naruto—_

_"Yeah," the blonde breathed. "I...wanna stay out here Sasuke. I'm just gonna stay out here for a bit, 'kay?"_

_"Naruto," Sasuke called as the blonde turned around and went to walk back into the forest._

_"Just for a bit," the blonde mumbled, and stumbled over a stick that caught his foot. Sasuke looked behind him, scowled, and then followed the blonde._

_He found him sitting against a tree, looking at his lap._

_"Naruto."_

_Naruto jumped at if startled, looking up at Sasuke with wide eyes before quickly looking down again. He turned his head to the side in a pathetic attempt to discretely hide a tear or two._

_"Naruto, look at me."_

_"N-no."_

_Sasuke sighed in frustration and knelt down in front of Naruto. He grabbed his shoulders, and Naruto turned to look at him with a gloomy expression._

_"What happened?"_

_Naruto shook his head._

_"Naruto—listen, I know that—"_

_"Nothing," Naruto interrupted quietly, his eyes unfocused, "nothing happened…honest. I'm just…not…all there right now, 'suke. Just let me be here for a bit. I just wanna sit here."_

_"Nothing…nothing really happened?"_

_Naruto paused, furrowing his eyebrows in an obvious attempt to think about Sasuke's question._

_"Nothing at the party, Sas…uke." His words were extended and slurred, as if he was very tired. He squinted up at Sasuke suddenly. "Why are you at the party?"_

_"I'm here to take you home, dobe."_

_Naruto's eyes widened and he looked down, grabbing at his pocket. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't remember—when did you get here? Did you—oh," he swayed as he stood too quickly, grabbing a tree branch for balance._

_"Careful," Sasuke eyed him. "You didn't ask me to pick you up. I came on my own."_ 'Because I was worried about you.'

_Naruto blinked at him in wonder, as if he had heard Sasuke's unspoken words._

_"Let's go home, dobe." Sasuke reached out a hand to help Naruto's balance, but Naruto frowned and seemed to shy away from it. He looked away._

_"Naruto?" Sasuke asked, after a moment._

_"D'you..do you really think I'm dumb like that?" Naruto mumbled so quietly, Sasuke could barely hear him._

_"Like…what?" Naruto was behaving completely out of character._

_"Dead last…I guess I really am that, aren't I?" Naruto laughed: it sounded hollow._

_"The fuck, Naruto? Where is this coming from?"_

_For the first time, Naruto looked him dead in the eye. "Go home, Sasuke."_

_Sasuke scowled._

_"No."_

_"Leave me alone."_

_"No."_

_"Sasuke—"_

_Sasuke sat down beside the tree and pulled Naruto down with him._

_Naruto seemed dizzy, and stared at Sasuke as if he was hallucinating._

_There was a moment of silence._

_"What is a forest like this doing in the middle of the city?" Sasuke asked. Despite his mood, Naruto snorted._

_"I dunno," he replied quietly. "Animals must like it…"_

_"All the wolves moved in here, eh? Maybe the bears, too," Sasuke leaned back against the tree._

_"No home, nobody wants them…at least they have a place to stay…it's not so bad...kinda crowded," Naruto seemed like he was dozing off, "maybe one day we'll be taken home…if they're a good boy…"_

* * *

After that, Sasuke had picked up the sleeping Naruto and taken him home. Naruto had apologized profusely the next day, and promptly never drank whiskey again—it was the first and last time he had ever seen Naruto break down like that.

Now, the blonde was attempting to brush his teeth through his giggles—probably still laughing at his own joke—when Sasuke came in to the bathroom.

"Shashke!" Naruto practically shouted. "Ouw woo' shawesh a baffwoo'!"

"You know you can remove the toothbrush before you talk," Sasuke smirked.

Naruto pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth and Sasuke dodged a glob of toothpaste that came flying his way.

"Our room shares a bathroom!" He exclaimed again. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Excellent deduction, dobe."

"Why do you think it does? And the partition door is kinda weird, right?" Naruto said, going back to brushing his teeth. "Do you shink it wash fow kidsh?"

"For kids?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded. "Hn…maybe the previous owners were couples who liked to…trade partners," he smirked. Naruto started coughing.

"No way!" He pulled the toothbrush out again and was staring at Sasuke with wide eyes. "Do you really think so? Did you meet them?"

Sasuke couldn't help but laugh, "of course not, dobe, I have no idea."

"Oh," Naruto seemed disappointed.

"It would make sense though," Sasuke pointed out, and Naruto was back to giggling again.

* * *

It was a good thing the two of them had to leave for work around the same time, because Naruto needed someone to kick him out of bed and Sasuke needed someone to stop him from drinking his fourth cup of coffee in as many minutes.

Sasuke, workaholic that he was, always stayed late, so Naruto beat him home. For the second time, the reality of living with Sasuke hit him. It didn't hit him as hard as the first time, but it was still a damn good punch.

He had promised to pay Sasuke back eventually – like paying rent – but still…that was something that was going to take very many years. He still had no idea what prompted Sasuke to invite Naruto to live with him. He had no idea why the idea had been so appealing that he agreed right away, either…well, no, that wasn't entirely true. It was _Sasuke_ they were talking about. Not to mention Naruto had been stifling the thought in the back of his head that going back to live with his parents felt like failure, and the terrifying thought that his friends would all go off into their separate walks of life, and forget about him. None of them went into the same job, it would have been so easy…

He shook his head. That hadn't happened. He had an amazing house with Sasuke, and he had spent every free moment he had texting one of his friends. And he had a job right out of university; that, in itself, was incredibly lucky. It was Sasuke who had pushed him to ask Tsunade if he could stay on; after working there every summer, it was a fairly reasonable request, but one he hadn't felt entitled enough to make, until Sasuke had slapped the back of his head and told him if he wasn't going to ask, Sasuke would do it for him, and it would be less than polite. He wasn't sure if Sasuke would have actually done it, but he hadn't really want to test him.

The sound of the door clicking open broke Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Welcome home!" He called.

"Naruto?" Sasuke's voice filtered in—the fact that Sasuke had to follow his voice to find him really spoke to how big the house was.

"I'm in the kitchen," he replied. Sasuke strode in, looking as unblemished and stoic as usual.

"Pasta?" The Uchiha asked.

"It's the only thing I can make consistently, you know that," Naruto laughed. "I got the extra tomato stuff that you like!"

Naruto indicated the jar on the table and Sasuke slid behind him, brushing up against his back, to examine it.

"So you did," he said after a moment, his voice soft and awfully close, "thank you."

"You're welcome," Naruto replied quietly, fighting the urge to blush. The dark eyes felt heavy on him, and he suddenly felt very conscious of the way he was stirring the pasta—as if he was afraid he was somehow doing it wrong.

"How was your day?" Sasuke leaned up back beside the stove, palms resting on the counter behind him.

"Good," his eyes flickered to Sasuke, but looking at him felt so overwhelming he had to pretend to be entirely focused on the pasta. "A bit boring, honestly."

He saw Sasuke nod out of the corner of his eye. "Mine too."

There was a pause. Naruto felt awkward.

"What else did you buy?" Sasuke slid behind him again, the island counter causing him to press up against Naruto's back for a moment. Naruto let out a puff of air.

"Uh—not a lot," he lied.

Sasuke bent down and opened the very full fridge. "Not a lot?"

"Well—I," Naruto blushed, "you bought the house and stuff, so…"

"You don't have to feel like you owe me," Sasuke frowned, shutting the fridge to cross his arms.

"Uh," Naruto stopped stirring the pasta and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. He looked at Sasuke. "I do owe you, though."

"You're paying me back," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "but you still bought the place. Hell, you bought the furniture too! Did you even include that in the price?"

Sasuke shrugged.

Naruto frowned. "You didn't, did you?"

"They were a gift," Sasuke said.

Naruto felt frustration build in him and he sighed, trying to let it go. "It's not that I don't appreciate all…this," he waved a hand around him, "but…I just…y'know, if you do stuff like that, I feel like I need to do something, too."

"You don't," Sasuke pointed out.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, and then chuckled a little. "That—damn it, Sasuke, that just makes me wanna do something even more."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "You go through life repaying every single good deed someone else has done for you?" Even in his disbelief, Sasuke realized that yes—that is _exactly_ what Naruto did.

"Uh…well, I try to, anyways," Naruto shrugged.

There was a pause.

"The pasta's boiling over," Sasuke pointed out.

"Wha—aah! Why didn't you say something sooner!" Naruto frantically tried to get the lid off, burning his hand in the process, but succeeding eventually. Sasuke reached over and lowered the heat a little.

"Did you burn yourself?" He eyed Naruto's hand.

"A little, I think. Not bad though." Naruto held his fingers up to his face. Pale fingers suddenly grasped his, and he yelped when Sasuke pressed against the burn.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered, pulling Naruto over to the sink and turning it on cold.

"Shut up, teme!" He pulled his hand out of Sasuke's, feeling colder at the loss, and ran it under the sink. "…I was gonna run it under cold water anyways."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, and went back to the pasta, placing the lid on with a towel. "No you weren't. You were going to say 'I'm fine' and go back to cooking."

Sasuke didn't need to look at him to know that Naruto reddened. He knew Sasuke was right because this had literally happened before, only with bacon grease, and Naruto had developed a rather angry blister that he had complained about for days.

"Bastard," Naruto said, after a moment. Sasuke just smirked and stirred the pasta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the kudos, subscriptions, bookmarks - it really brightened my day! I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last one :)
> 
> See you tomorrow!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	3. Yearning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters. They are such lovely characters though...

Late that night, Sasuke lay in bed staring at the partition door. He could hear the loud snores coming from the room beside him, and in spite of the fact that he had really been rather exhausted all day, he couldn't bring himself to join the dobe in sleep. He sighed, and turned over to stare at the ceiling.

He had it bad. And it was a problem.

The worst part was he hadn't even really fully realized it until he had already asked Naruto to move in with him. Some part of him knew he was unhealthily attached to the blonde when his entire convocation had been ruined at the thought of never seeing him again, but exactly _where_ the attachment came from didn't fully hit him until the summer. They had met almost every day—planning, grabbing dinner, looking at houses—the domesticity of it all had really grabbed onto Sasuke. Many of the realtors had obviously thought them a couple—Naruto, oblivious as always, probably had no idea, but Sasuke…Sasuke hadn't been able to bring himself to correct them. If they thought Naruto was his blonde, well, he had no problem with that.

And that was exactly the problem.

Naruto wasn't his—they weren't a couple, moving in together and going on dinner dates. Naruto was as straight as they came. Sasuke was still pretty convinced that the blonde would marry Sakura, in spite of the girl's massive crush on him and Naruto's insistence that they had too much of a brother-sister relationship.

Surprisingly, sexuality had never been something Naruto brought up, and so Sasuke hadn't brought it up either. Before he had realized his orientation, everyone else at his high school had already been convinced—he had no idea where the rumor came from, but it had definitely stuck. He could have gotten rid of it, and the kids who started it for that matter, with his father's money, but that had always been Itachi's route, not his. Sasuke preferred the route of a few broken noses—that was something Naruto definitely knew about.

But Naruto never went beyond asking if Sasuke had a girlfriend, simply accepting the "no" as it was, and moving on. Sasuke was never one to prod, either, and he didn't need to be. Naruto was very open with talking about how hot various _female_ celebrities were, or some number he got at a bar, or a woman he brought back to their room, or—

Sasuke angrily turned over in his bed, facing the window this time. This had to stop. He had to get over this miserable crush so he could go back to appreciating the fact that he had a best friend—something that he still couldn't quite fathom.

He checked the time…2:12. Late, but not late enough to call it morning. Resigned to his fate, he rolled out of bed—vowing to distract himself with something else until he could finally get some rest.

* * *

Naruto awoke to the sounds of a guitar strumming—they were soft and quiet, and Naruto had no idea what it was about them that had awoken him. He rolled over to squint at his clock…2:34. Yikes, Sasuke must be exhausted. He stifled a yawn and sat up, padding over to the partition door. It was unlocked.

Sasuke started when the door opened—he hadn't even realized the snores had stopped. Naruto, clad in only his boxers, stumbled in and plopped down beside Sasuke. Sasuke flipped the guitar so it lay flat on his lap.

"Dobe," he greeted, keeping his face impassive.

"Can't sleep, eh?" Naruto said through a yawn.

"Did I wake you?"

"Kinda, not really though. You weren't being loud or anythin'." He hugged a knee to him so he could rest his face on it and closed his eyes. "What's up?"

Sasuke wanted to laugh, or maybe cry, but he settled on appraising Naruto's body while he had the chance. "Just…restless. Can't shut my mind off," ' _and you're not helping_.'

"Mm," Naruto said, "keep playing."

"And what are you going to do? Fall asleep on my bed?"

"Mhmm," Naruto flopped over, essentially spooning Sasuke's hips. Sasuke closed his eyes with a pained expression, feeling the warmth of Naruto around him, and wondered what he had done to piss the universe off so badly.

Eventually, Sasuke got around to playing a little, but he fully intended to sneak off into Naruto's room after his thoughts had calmed. Unfortunately for Sasuke, Naruto had managed to have some sort of death grip, and Sasuke's lack of sleep was definitely catching up to him. He fought to keep his eyes open, prying at Naruto's fingers to wrench himself free—but when Naruto made a noise of protest and wiggled free to hug him closer, there wasn't much Sasuke could do but accept his fate.

* * *

Naruto awoke feeling very warm, but very annoyed. Why had Sasuke set his alarm so loud? He couldn't even hear his own. Muttering, he went to roll over only to realize he was blocked.

Blinking, he opened his eyes to only to meet Sasuke's, who was already awake and had a strange expression on his face. They stared at each other, the alarms wailing in the background.

As if suddenly realizing how close they were, Naruto reeled back, face burning.

"I-uh," Naruto blinked around, "can you turn that thing off?"

Sasuke obediently shut the alarm off, and went to get out of bed, rubbing at his eyes and attempting to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"When did I come in here?" Naruto asked, face scrunched up. He looked fucking adorable and it made Sasuke want to throw himself out the window.

"Late last night," Sasuke yawned. "I'm not surprised you don't remember. You made it to about there before you fell asleep." He pointed to the other side of the bed.

Naruto snorted. "What was I even doing? I wasn't sleepwalking, was I?"

"I couldn't sleep; I was playing guitar. I think it woke you up – but apparently not enough," Sasuke smirked. Naruto laughed.

"Alright, get out of here," Sasuke shooed him away, "I'm getting changed."

Naruto obediently left, but not before calling back, "I've seen you naked before!"

The partition door shut, and Sasuke crumpled onto the bed. Sasuke had woken up before Naruto, and the combination of Naruto's arms around him and his face so close had nearly driven him crazy. He was fighting the urge to kiss the blonde from the moment he woke up, and he had been inches from doing so when Naruto's eyes had opened. He had never even heard the alarm.

This was going to be the death of him.

* * *

Luckily for Sasuke's mental state, the rest of the week was relatively uneventful. They went to work, alternated cooking, and Sasuke even scouted out a few places to get take-out from. It was the next Friday when things started to get hectic again.

They had decided, earlier that week, to have a sort of housewarming party that weekend. Well, Naruto had brought it up, and pushed until Sasuke had finally agreed.

"We have all this space! We should use it!" He had exclaimed, spinning around as if to prove his point. Sasuke had snorted and rolled his eyes, but found himself unable to argue.

So, they found themselves preparing for a rowdy bunch of all kinds of guests. Naruto had insisted that Sasuke invite his own friends, and while he hadn't grown particularly close to any of them, Sasuke extended an invitation to Neji, Shikamaru and maybe one or two other people. Naruto, who was friends with everyone he met, had invited the rest of the party—so needless to say the house was going to be packed.

That was for the evening, however. Sasuke had suggested that they invite Kakashi and Iruka for dinner beforehand, when Naruto had expressed that he hadn't quite known how to fit them in. And although Naruto poked and prodded, Sasuke had declined all suggestions to have his family over. His father was a busy man, and would likely see the entire occasion as an inconvenience and opportunity to criticize him. Itachi…well…Itachi was a bit of a loose cannon, and he planned on keeping him as far are from Naruto as he could for as long as possible.

Naruto was currently fretting in the kitchen, although Sasuke was the one doing most of the cooking.

"Okay what can I do?" Naruto said, shuffling over.

"Chop the onions," he slid over a few, "not too small. Just throw them in the pan when they're done."

"'Kay!"

Not five seconds later, the sniffles started.

"Th-these onions are really strong," Naruto choked out.

Sasuke took one look at Naruto's scrunched up face and laughed.

"Shut up, teme!" Naruto wiped at a tear that had slid down his cheek.

"I can take over if you'd like," Sasuke offered, smirked.

Naruto shook his head vigorously, glaring at Sasuke through red-rimmed eyes.

Sasuke opened his mouth—and the doorbell rang.

Naruto opened and closed his mouth.

"I can get it," Sasuke offered. Naruto nodded with a sheepish smile.

He greeted Naruto's parents with a polite handshake, although Iruka quickly pulled him into a hug. He felt himself blush as he pulled away, and he softly invited them inside.

"Wow, Naruto really wasn't kidding," Kakashi remarked.

"It's beautiful," Iruka told Sasuke.

"Thank you," Sasuke replied.

"Is Naruto in the kitchen?" Iruka said, already walking on his way there.

"Yes, he is." And Iruka left, leaving Kakashi and Sasuke alone in the entrance hall.

Kakashi whistled. "This is a lot of money to spend on a house for two people."

Sasuke shrugged. Kakashi looked at him with piercing eyes. From the moment he had met him, Kakashi had seemed to be able to read Sasuke like an open book, and it had infuriated him to no end.

"A lot of money to spend on a house that you didn't even like that much."

"I like it," Sasuke said, eyebrows furrowed.

"Mhm," Kakashi said, "but he likes it more."

Sasuke blinked and looked away.

"Mhm," Kakashi said again. Sasuke didn't reply.

"Shall we go visit the boys in the kitchen?" Kakashi flashed a smile and left, leaving Sasuke able to do nothing but follow.

* * *

Naruto was all smiles in the kitchen. Iruka had a fierce blush on his face and immediately stammered apologies at Sasuke when he walked in.

"Wha—"

"He saw me crying," Naruto could barely speak through his laughter, "and he thought you had done something and he was sooooo mad," Naruto giggled again, and Iruka reddened further.

"Crying?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto was chopping onions," Iruka filled in.

"Speaking of," Sasuke said, "you all can wait in the dining room. I'll finish up here."

"Really? Thanks Sasuke!" Naruto called, already leaving the room. Sasuke could hear him already engrossed in another conversation.

He sighed, and leaned over the counter, listening to the sizzling of the onions. Kakashi…Kakashi had probably already guessed. It's not like he was being very subtle, but he could hardly help it. Naruto would light up and look at him with excited, bright blue eyes, and Sasuke was his. He could have asked for his own private plane, and Sasuke would have probably started looking into how to purchase them. He was hopeless.

The onions were done, so he turned off the heat and set about mixing them with the rest of the meal. And here he was, serving Naruto and his parents—agonizing over each plate as if he wanted to impress them.

He sighed, and grabbed two plates. Of course he wanted to impress them. Who was he kidding?

* * *

One dinner with a boisterous Naruto, laughing Iruka, and relatively quiet Kakashi and Sasuke later, and they were giving a quick tour of the house before Naruto's parents had to say goodbye.

"A partition wall?" Kakashi raised his eyebrows. Naruto just laughed.

"Ya! Cool, right? Look!" He swung the door open so the rooms were connected. "And we share a bathroom. I dunno why it's built like this but I kinda like it," Naruto finished with an excited grin.

Iruka merely laughed at Naruto's enthusiasm. Kakashi smiled and nodded, but stayed back as the two of them moved onto a different room.

"Sasuke," Kakashi called quietly.

Sasuke felt a pit settle in his stomach. He looked back at Kakashi with a blank look on his face.

"A partition wall?" Kakashi repeated.

Sasuke nodded, his throat dry.

"Sasuke…"

Sasuke scowled.

"Don't look at me like that," Kakashi said, "I'm not saying you're going to do something stupid. I'm more worried about you than Naruto. I know how oblivious he can be."

"I'm fine."

"Sure. What are you going to do if he never returns your feelings?"

' _He's never going to.'_ Sasuke didn't reply.

"Nothing, hm? And you'll be content, just living like this?"

Sasuke very intently Not Looked at Kakashi.

"Naruto would probably want you to tell him," the older man commented.

Sasuke scowled. Naruto probably would, but that didn't mean it would result in anything even remotely positive.

"What do you think he would do, really?"

Sasuke, still making a point not to look at Kakashi, only scowled deeper. It was very obvious what Naruto would do. In a misguided attempt to make Sasuke feel more comfortable, Naruto would become very aware of everything he did—he had already seen it happen. Neji's cousin—after a horribly awkward confession from her and an even more awkward, but still polite, rejection from Naruto, what had been a budding friendship had been firmly ground into dust. He just didn't know how to act around her, nor her around him.

With Naruto and Sasuke, it would be even worse. Naruto was incredibly clingy by nature, and even more so around those he was comfortable with. He could barely bring himself to hug the poor Hyuuga girl.

No—confessing, while being something he dreamed about in his most desperate nights, was never going to be a good idea.

Kakashi had been watching him, as if reading his thoughts.

"It wouldn't be as bad as you're thinking, Sasuke."

_'No, it would be worse.'_

"What if he returns your feelings?"

Sasuke snapped his head around so quickly, his neck began to ache.

"No, I haven't heard anything," Kakashi was quick to add, "but—"

Sasuke felt the bubble of hope in his chest burst, and his eyes went cold.

"That was cruel, Kakashi," he said, before he could stop himself, and then he fled.

"Well," Kakashi scratched at his chin, looking around the empty room, "that certainly could have gone better…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's our first look into Sasuke's struggle :) What did you think? I have to warn you, by the end of this story, the boys do so much dancing around each other that even I got a bit dizzy... :P
> 
> Until tomorrow,
> 
> \- Kinomi


	4. The Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters! If I did, there would have been A LOT more talk about Naruto's reverse sexy no jutsu...

' _What if he returns your feelings?'_

Even after Kakashi and Iruka had left, and the party guests had started to arrive, the words swirled around Sasuke's head like a sandstorm.

"Sakura! And Ino!" Naruto exclaimed, hugging both girls at once. The yell broke Sasuke out of his reverie just enough to briefly shake hands with both of them.

"How have you been?" Naruto's eyes were excited and bright, and that smile alone was almost worth throwing this party.

"Sakura's been a hermit, as usual," Ino teased, rolling her eyes at the pink-haired girl.

Sakura protested, and Sasuke's mind wandered, only half-listening to Sakura's talk about medical school and Ino's lamentations about her love life (she excused herself rather quickly once she found a new conquest for the evening). He sighed softly, and attempted to shake himself. Kakashi's comments had shaken him badly—he hadn't realized he was so transparent—and the brief second of hope that Kakashi had seen something in Naruto that might indicate…

No, he wouldn't let himself think that way. Nothing had changed. He would enjoy whatever he got from Naruto, and ask no more.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke opened his eyes, not even having realized he had closed them. Naruto, now alone, was peering at him.

"Ah, sorry," he said.

"You okay?" Naruto looked at him seriously, and Sasuke felt a wave of weariness at how easily the blonde made his heart beat faster.

"Just a headache," he said, not lying entirely. The place had really started to fill out, and they had barely spoken to any of them. Someone had turned on the music and the yelling had started and, well, Sasuke had never been a social person to begin with.

Naruto smiled sheepishly, knowing all this.

"I know, I know," he said, "but I appreciate you doing this. You know I do. Just a couple of hours and you can sneak off to your room later."

Sasuke only smiled in answer, but Naruto took it as the acceptance that it was.

"How about we go find your friends?" Naruto offered, feeling a bit bad for Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded, and off they went.

* * *

But it wasn't as easy as it sounded, as pretty much every single person on their way stopped to greet them, give them drinks, tell them their life story—Sasuke only knew about a third of these people, but he followed Naruto around like the lovesick puppy that he was.

They found Neji by the time he was feeling pleasantly numb, and from the looks of his flushed face, so was Neji.

He maintained his composure, however, until Naruto excused himself to go to the bathroom.

"So, this is what you've been hiding all this time, hm?" Neji's face held a predatory smirk. "I suddenly understand my cousin a lot better. Do you know if he…"

"No."

"No to what?" Neji asked innocently.

"Neji." Sasuke was not in the mood for jokes—not about this, and especially not tonight. While Neji was not exactly promiscuous, he was never one to keep a lover longer than a night.

Neji waved a hand. "Alright, alright."

"Besides, he's as straight as they come," Sasuke said.

"Hmm, checked, have you?" Neji raised an eyebrow. He hated Neji.

"Neji."

"I'm only teasing," Neji chuckled. Sasuke glared at him. It was, perhaps, the first time he had seen Neji under the influence of alcohol, and if Sasuke had it his way, it would be the last. Where was Naruto?

"Ooh," Neji made a noise, looking somewhere past Sasuke. "Now who is _that_?"

And with that, he was gone. Well. As long as he wasn't off to attempt to bed Naruto, Sasuke supposed it wasn't any of his business. But speaking of his business—Naruto couldn't _still_ be in the bathroom, could he?

And thus, the search for the blonde began.

* * *

And it proved fruitless. Instead, he found himself whisked away by various guests, all far too enthusiastic about giving him drinks. He had gotten at least five bottles of wine from three people alone, and each insisted that he try it—as it was the _best_. Of course it was. He bet the clerk at the store really thought so when he made them pay twenty dollars over what it was worth.

Many times, he refused, but they were either too drunk or too loud to hear him, and he was dragged off to the kitchen to try yet another 'vintage'. He supposed Naruto had given them advice on what to bring as a housewarming gift, maybe as a thank you to Sasuke, and that thought meant he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed. However, he was getting quite dizzy.

His rescue, surprisingly, came in the colour pink.

"Hey guys, I'm going to steal Sasuke for a bit, 'kay?" And she reached out, hooking his arm and bringing him into the dining room, where it was surprisingly much quieter.

"How are you holding up?" She asked quietly, looking him over.

"Hm?" He replied, feeling another wave of dizziness hit him.

Sakura let out a breath. "Okay, let's get you some water."

"I'm fine," he insisted, but then she seemed to disappear for a moment, and then there was water in her hand. He blinked rapidly, staring at the glass she was passing to him.

"Drink the whole thing," she said, crossing her arms.

He did, mainly because she was scary when she was angry, and he presumed he was still on her bad side from when he had, rather rudely, rebuked her affections.

* * *

_**(February, Three Years Ago)** _

_Sakura had come to visit their room again, and Sasuke was going to rip his hair out. Every time she came over, it was the same. Naruto would chat her ear off in a desperate attempt to make her interested, and Sakura would sit there and steal glances at Sasuke, trying to draw him into the conversation whenever she could._

_But today, Sasuke had just gotten off the phone with his father, and then his brother, and then his mother, and he was in a positively foul mood. Instead of the one-word answers he usually gave, he snapped._

_"I don't_ care _, Sakura. Leave me out of your conversation."_

_"Oi, teme, she's just trying to be—"_

_"No, she's not 'just trying to be nice', she's_ not taking a fucking hint _," he swiveled around to look at her, "Naruto's the one who's your friend, so why do you spend the entire time you're here trying to talk to me?"_

_"I—I just thought—" she stuttered._

_"_ I'm not interested _," he nearly snarled, and Naruto punched him straight in the chin._

_Sakura broke them apart minutes later, and then fled. Naruto scowled and hadn't talked to him for a good three hours—until Sasuke had broken, and quietly gone to apologize to Sakura, who lived in the same residence building as them. She had apologized as well, but Sasuke had felt a frostiness from her ever since then._

* * *

"Good," she said, taking the cup from him. "You boys are so stubborn," she whispered, grabbing his face and turning it back and forth to check how he reacted.

Sasuke grabbed her hands and pushed them away, but she only smiled at him.

"I want to intervene," she said. "I really do. But it's something you idiots need to figure out on your own, apparently."

She sighed. Sasuke had no idea what she was on about.

"Don't drink too much, Sasuke. I don't want to need to take care of you when you get sick."

"Why would you—"

Sakura only rolled her eyes. "I'm the only sober person at this party, that's why."

"Why are you sober?"

"Designated driver," she said. "Anyways, go hangout with Naruto. He's been looking for you the whole night, you know."

Sasuke looked at her in surprise, but she merely turned away. He sighed. He needed another drink—something he could nurse properly.

* * *

All of a sudden, finding Naruto was easy. You could hear his voice from anywhere in the house. Sasuke was noticed within minutes.

It was refusing him that was the hard part. It seemed every other sentence was a "Do you want another drink, Sasuke?", "Can I get you anything, Sasuke?", "I'll get us both something, Sasuke!"

And Sasuke, far past pleasantly dizzy onto entirely disoriented, could only shake his head and look away. Drunken Naruto was even more expressive than regular Naruto, and he couldn't bear to see the disappointed look on his face.

The song changed, and Naruto suddenly perked up.

"I love this song!" He spun around with brilliant blue eyes. "Let's go dance!"

And before Sasuke could do anything about it, Naruto was pulling him towards the other room (which he already regret putting a stereo in). Thankfully, there was already a considerable number of people dancing in the very dimly lit room, so it wasn't incredibly awkward, but it definitely wasn't comfortable when Naruto pulled them into the most tightly packed section and began to dance. Sasuke wasn't much of a dancer, but he couldn't help but move along with Naruto in the pleasant haze of alcohol and vague anonymity of the dim room.

He didn't know how long they danced for, but he did feel Naruto moving closer and closer, and he was nearly driven wild when he could feel Naruto's body pressed up against his, feel his breath on his skin, he was so close—he could—

Abruptly, Sasuke felt a wave of anger rush through him, and he froze. He realized where he was and what was happening, and even with the haze of the party, he could not stop the frustration. This wasn't fair. Naruto had _no idea_. He was dancing and having fun and he probably didn't even notice how close they were—he didn't even care, he would never—

Sasuke turned tail and fled, pushing his way through the crowd, positive he was only imagining Naruto calling after him. He practically ran up to the upstairs guest bathroom, feeling no remorse as he broke up the heated tongue-lock that Ino and Shikamaru were engaged in. He locked the door behind him and splashed water on his face. That had been too close.

* * *

A distraught Naruto and worried Sakura made their way upstairs, looking around for Sasuke. They knocked on his door and peeked in.

"It doesn't look like he's here, Naruto," she said, checking the bathroom just in case. "He must be downstairs. Let's go find him."

"No," Naruto said, "I think I'm going to just go to bed."

"Are you sure?" Sakura said, following him into his bedroom. "Don't go to bed on a bad note! Sasuke was probably just feeling sick or something."

"Sakura, he…he ran the moment I got close to him. I saw his face; it was pure panic. I'm such a fucking idiot." He collapsed onto the bed, head in his hands. Sakura quietly closed the door behind them.

"Naruto, you're not…"

"He doesn't like me, Sakura. I don't know why I ever thought he might," Naruto laughed and his voice cracked through his fingers, "I'm so fucking stupid."

"That's not—you're not—"

"Could you get me a glass of water?" Naruto interrupted, his voice barely a whisper.

Sakura looked at him with sad eyes. "Only if you admit you're not an idiot."

Naruto gave a small laugh. "Tap water's fine."

She poured out what little Naruto had left in his cup and filled it with water from the bathroom. Naruto hadn't moved when she came back. She knelt beside him with a quiet sigh, and put her hand on his knee.

"What's the worst that could happen?" She smiled at him when he looked up, but spoke before he could reply. "He yells at you? Says that you can't take a hint and he's not fucking interested?"

He gave a watery laugh. "I don't think he swore."

"He may as well have," she gave him a kind smile, and they took a moment just to look at each other.

Naruto heaved a sigh and rubbed at his eyes. "I'm hopeless," he said.

She laughed and nodded. "You both are. Now c'mon," she stood back up and held out a hand, "there's nothing stopping you from still having fun tonight except yourself. Let's go back downstairs."

"…Okay."

* * *

Sasuke closed the door as soon as he opened it, heart beating so fast it felt like it would burst. He—he hadn't imagined that, right?

He opened the door of the guest bedroom just a crack—no, he hadn't imagined it. That was definitely Sakura and Naruto, hand in hand, coming out of Naruto's bedroom.

He stumbled backwards, tripping onto the bed behind him.

Well.

He let out a desperate laugh.

 _Well_.

It's not like he hadn't expected it—bit sleazy of her, though, to go for it when Naruto was drunk and she was sober. Bit rude, in Sasuke's opinion, and he really didn't appreciate them fooling around in what was essentially him and Naruto's rooms—

Except it wasn't. That wasn't it at all, and deluding himself like this really wasn't working. And if Naruto wanted to fool around with—if he wanted to—wanted to—

Sasuke fled back into the bathroom; he was going to be sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Sasuke, you antisocial jerk, you :) What did you think of this chapter? Let me know!
> 
> Happy almost Halloween, guys! Should I write up a quick oneshot for tomorrow? I don't have anything planned, but I'm such a sucker for holiday themes...
> 
> \- Kinomi


	5. Hungover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters!

The next morning, Naruto woke up on the couch downstairs, sun streaming in through the windows. The place was a mess, but he felt even worse. He stumbled to the kitchen, turning the tap on and leaning under to chug what water he could—the rest of it, he slapped onto his face.

They had nowhere to be, and while Naruto felt bad about the state of the house, he was in no place to do anything about it at the moment. He was going back to bed.

He stumbled up the stairs and more body-checked the door than turned the knob, flopping onto his mattress in relief. In his efforts to get under the blankets, he blearily noted that the partition was still open from last night—and that Sasuke's bed, neat as ever, had no one in it.

Naruto frowned.

Sasuke couldn't possibly be awake already, could he?

Naruto let his eyes close…

…

"Damn it all," he forced himself to sit up. The guilt would eat him alive if Sasuke cleaned this all himself. At the very least, he should make sure the bastard was okay.

* * *

Not ten minutes later, Naruto felt like a right asshole. Sasuke had been passed out on the floor of the guest bathroom, a towel scrunched up under his head like a makeshift pillow. Naruto remembered feeling horribly sorry for himself when Sasuke had practically run away from him—he really should have tried to find Sasuke. Sakura had been completely right; he had gotten sick, and he had probably been here the rest of the night. Naruto felt awful.

He eyed his sleeping form. It felt like some sort crime to wake Sasuke up; it always did. It was very rare you caught Sasuke in as good of a mood as he looked to be in sleep.

But Naruto really ought to move him off of the hard tile…

"Sasuke?" He said gently, attempting to shake the man awake. Sasuke didn't budge.

Well, that was surprising. Sasuke was generally a light sleeper; he must have been really exhausted.

Naruto sighed, and stared at Sasuke.

' _It really wasn't fair_ ,' he thought, looking at Sasuke's porcelain skin. The man had no idea how beautiful he was.

Well, no, that's not true. He probably had some idea, with the amount of times he had been hit on, flirted with, given a phone number…to all of which he had been nothing short of acidic to. He figured Sasuke probably had no sex drive at all, which was a damn shame considering the veritable god he was in looks. Naruto bet he could bed anyone he wanted to—not that he'd ever say it to his face.

' _That's probably enough creepy staring_ ,' he thought, shaking himself. He'd find a way to pull Sasuke onto the guest bed (which, miraculously, no one had slept in), and then pass out himself. Everything else could wait for later.

And wait it did.

* * *

Sasuke awoke at a heinously late time in comparison to his usual schedule. _'1:00'_ said the clock beside him, and he blinked several times to make sure he hadn't gone completely mad. It took him a moment to register that he was in the guest bed, which he did not remember sleeping in, but he supposed he must have moved himself at some point during the night.

He sighed, and made to roll out over.

Immediately, he regretted it.

As much sleep as he had had, his stomach had still not quite forgiven him for the previous night, and the sudden movement sent a wave of nausea echoing through him. He lay on his side, eyes closed, trying to focus on breathing as the wave passed. As he began to feel better, he realized something wasn't quite right…

He let his eyes open. There, in all of his glory, was Naruto, sleeping as soundly as could be. As it was, Sasuke had rolled closer to the blonde, to the point where he was very nearly on top of him. He held his breath, panic rising within him.

Quietly, Sasuke shuffled away from Naruto, sneaking out of the bed. He had no idea what they were even doing there…surely he hadn't been _that_ drunk? He generally remembered most everything, although occasionally there would be a be a bit of a haze over his memories…

With that thought, Sasuke had successfully made it out of the guest room without Naruto budging, much to his relief. In a rush, the past night's memories hit him, and he staggered against the wall.

Sakura.

It's not as if it was a surprise.

Sasuke closed his eyes and thumped his head against the wall behind him, willing himself to stop this. Surely he hadn't expected that Naruto would stay single forever.

Still…

He sighed and grabbed at his face, leaning forward. He had to stop this. With renewed vigor, Sasuke went to grab his music player, put on the angriest music he could find, and set about cleaning the house, and kicking people out.

* * *

Naruto had awoken at about the same time that Sasuke had started to leave, having missed the warmth that had once been near him. He only opened his eyes to catch a glimpse of the Uchiha leaving the room, before he heard a sigh, and a soft thump hitting the wall.

Well, apparently Sasuke was feeling just as bad as he was. At least there was that!

' _But_ ,' Naruto thought with a small groan, ' _that means I have no excuse not to help him…_ '

Sasuke would undoubtedly start cleaning, as he always did after Naruto had had some sort of social gathering. Generally, he was always done by the time Naruto awoke, but if he had the chance to help now…

He glanced at the clock…1:08. He didn't really have an excuse to keep sleeping…he groaned, and forced himself out of the bed.

* * *

In Naruto's experience, Sasuke listening to music meant very few things, and none of them were good—and, as a result of living with the antisocial bastard for years, Naruto knew not to bother him.

So, after changing and splashing some water on his face, he set about grabbing plates and garbage, and generally avoided Sasuke whenever he could.

Sasuke, lost in his own world, didn't actually notice Naruto until when the blonde was directly behind him, going for the same garbage bin that he was. He unceremoniously backed into the blonde, got incredibly startled by the touch, and spun around to slam his arm into Naruto's chest.

Naruto was entirely unprepared for Sasuke's violent reaction, and slammed back into the counter as Sasuke shoved him away from himself.

"Ow," Naruto moaned.

Sasuke, with wide eyes, took out his ear phones.

"S-sorry, I—uh," he didn't know what had possessed him to do that, "are you okay?"

"Yeah," Naruto waved him off, in spite of the pain in his lower spine, "yeah, I'm fine—sorry if I, uh, scared you."

"You didn't—" Sasuke started automatically, but Naruto met his words with such an incredulous look that he stopped.

"I had music," Sasuke conceded, only a bit sulky.

"Yeah," Naruto gave him a lopsided grin, "you did. You gonna let me put this garbage away?"

The blonde indicated the plastic bag he had filled in his hand. Sasuke eyed it skeptically.

"No," he said.

"No?" Naruto asked.

"No," Sasuke repeated, "that's way too full. I need to empty the garbage. Take that to the bin—better yet, put the bin outside."

"Ugh," Naruto made a show of looking exasperated, "you're always making me do all the annoying stuff." But he was already on his way out of the room, and Sasuke could only smile at the blonde's retreating frame.

He took a moment to appreciate—' _no_ ,' he thought, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. This kind of thing had to end. He couldn't go on appreciating Naruto's incredibly looks—those bright eyes, that warm smile—he had to move on. It wasn't happening naturally, so he would have to work at it. He would do it. He would get over Naruto.

* * *

A few hours later, Naruto's burst of productivity had come to an end, and he had passed out on the closest seat—which happened to be their dining room. Sasuke would have laughed if he hadn't been so tired.

He was fairly sure no one else was in their house, and no amount of coffee seemed to be helping his hangover. It was clean enough for the time being; he was going back to his own bed.

* * *

Both boys awoke in time for dinner, and in time for there to be none. Their fridge had been effectively raided by drunken adults, and Naruto scavenged through it to try and find something they could piece together. Sasuke peered over the back of the fridge door, watching him.

"We can…have salami and some peppers? Oh wait, there's cheese too! We could make nachos!"

"I'll order food." Sasuke was already walking away.

Naruto just rolled his eyes.

* * *

Another hour later, Sasuke went to get the door, and Naruto got a phone call.

"I didn't want to tell Lee," came Sakura's agitated voice, "and I might be just jumping to conclusions, but, I just—I needed to talk to someone."

"No—no, yeah, of course," Naruto said, and gave Sasuke a serious look as he came in with food, before moving to another room. Sasuke sighed.

"Can't you just—go buy a pregnancy test?" Naruto ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah," Sakura said. "I'm going to. As soon as I can, I am. I'm just—I'm just…freaking out a bit."

"Sakura," Naruto smiled a little to himself, "listen. Of everyone I've ever known, you've always had your life the most in order. What is honestly the worst that will happen? You don't think Lee would marry you the moment he could? I bet he already has the ring."

He heard Sakura snort.

"And it doesn't even matter. You'd be an amazing mom. Lee would be a hilarious dad. You guys are great, you really are. You'd make it through anything."

"Yeah," her voice was breathy, as if full of sighs, "you're right. I should talk to Lee. I just keep thinking we've been dating for barely a year…"

"He's been in love with you for at least four," Naruto rebutted, and Sakura laughed.

"Maybe," she said, but Naruto could hear the smile in her voice.

"Go talk to Lee," he said, "and then update me. 'Kay?"

"Okay."

* * *

Naruto let out a sigh when he re-entered the room, but as soon as he opened his mouth—not totally sure what he would tell Sasuke, but going to talk nonetheless—he was interrupted.

"Food's in the kitchen. I'm going upstairs."

Without looking at him, Sasuke left. Sasuke was in another mood, apparently. Naruto could have sworn he was okay just a minute ago, but maybe he was just really feeling the hangover now—it was probably way worse than Naruto's.

Naruto grimaced a little, remembering how he had found Sasuke this morning, and decided to leave him be for now.

* * *

' _I_ ', Sasuke thought to himself, looking around his entirely food-less bedroom, ' _am such a goddamn idiot_.'

He just—he just hadn't wanted to hear it. He didn't want to hear Naruto, with red cheeks, scratching the back of his head, shyly bring up he was dating Sakura. He just—not yet. Eventually. He would listen to it later—no doubt, he would have to—but just…not yet.

Sasuke fell face-first onto his bed and groaned into the mattress.

Now he was hungry _and_ in an entirely foul mood. And he couldn't go back downstairs without seeing Naruto, and there was no chance in hell that the blonde would leave him alone. Naruto never left _anyone_ alone.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. But that was—that was one of the best parts about him. No matter how shitty, rude, or downright hostile Sasuke had been, Naruto had continued to give him chances to make up for it. It was like he understood Sasuke on a level that no one else ever had—Sasuke was well aware he spent the majority of his life in a negative mood, but…not when Naruto was around. Something about him just made his life…brighter. Better. It made him want to smile, and laugh, and forget about whatever had made him so down in the first place.

He had never met anyone who held this sort of power over him.

And for god knows what reason, Naruto seemed to enjoy his company. At least, the Uzumaki always seemed to seek him out…

He closed his eyes, trying to turn off his mind. His stomach grumbled, and they snapped open again.

He needed some goddamn food. Wearily, he moved off the bed and made his way back downstairs.

* * *

Not ten minutes after Sasuke had left, he came back downstairs. Naruto paused at the noise of him walking down the stairs, and bit down on the noodles hanging halfway out of his mouth so he could go see the grumpy Uchiha.

Still chewing, he followed Sasuke into the kitchen.

"How much water have you had?" He asked, startling Sasuke.

"I—what?"

Naruto shot him a grin, and responded by handing him a cup of water.

"I've had plenty," Sasuke made a sour face, and didn't take the cup.

"Have more, teme," Naruto was unfazed.

"Fine," Sasuke took it and turned away.

"…are you eating more?" Sasuke, a chronic under-eater, didn't respond.

"Sasuke? Are you okay?" Naruto moved closer, and it made Sasuke lurch away.

"I'm—fine," he said. Naruto didn't look convinced.

"Okay," Naruto said slowly, "let me carry your food."

"Naruto, I'm—"

"Yeah, yeah, you're fine," Naruto shoved in front of him and grabbed a bunch of the containers. "Take the water and go. I'm already holding all this stuff."

Sasuke scowled, but Naruto kept nudging him until he moved. To his credit, Naruto was totally silent when going up the stairs, rightly guessing Sasuke's head was pounding.

"Get under the covers," Naruto instructed, and Sasuke gave him a look.

"Just do it," Naruto said, and Sasuke was too tired to disobey.

Naruto refilled his water from the bathroom, and put a little from all the take-out containers onto a plate, which he plopped on Sasuke's lap.

"Don't eat too fast," Naruto warned.

"Naruto," Sasuke was frowning, "I'm not a child. You don't need to babysit me."

"True," Naruto allowed, "but I do need to make sure my best friend is alright. So just humour me, okay? I'm gonna go get my food."

Sasuke didn't respond, and Naruto took it as the agreement that it was. When the blonde returned, it was with his own plate, and some painkillers. He put the painkillers on Sasuke's bedside table without comment, and then sat on the end of the bed, his plate in his lap.

Personally, Sasuke had found the food to be a bit greasy and overpowering, but Naruto seemed to enjoy it, if the rate at which he was eating was any indication. Naruto's eyes flickered to Sasuke when he reached over to take the painkillers, but the blonde didn't say a word—only returning to the bathroom to fill up Sasuke's cup of water when he finished it.

Before Naruto could get back to his plate, his phone rang again. He immediately answered it, and Sasuke looked away.

"Hey! Hey—yeah," Naruto grabbed his plate and looked around for somewhere safe to put it, "you got the test already? And?"

Naruto made his way out of the room, with a relieved smile, "so you're not," the door shut and Naruto laughed, "it was a false alarm! And you were all freaking out…"

His voice faded away, and Sasuke's fork clattered on his plate. He stared at his lap, unable to think straight.

Surely—no.

Surely he had misheard.

Surely there was some other explanation.

The words swirled around his head, and he tried desperately to think of other situations in which they applied, but 'test' and 'false alarm' only seemed to bring up something very specific.

He knew they had…begun dating, but he hadn't—he hadn't thought—

Sasuke felt sick. He shoved his plate away from him and stumbled to the bathroom, locking both doors, falling to his knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Sasuke, always overhearing the wrong stuff :P I keep making him be sick, but I think he's the type of person that doesn't really binge drink so his body is super sensitive when he does.
> 
> See you tomorrow!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	6. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters!

When Naruto hung up the phone, it was to the sound of retching. He grimaced and tried the doorknobs, but they were both locked—apparently Sasuke had wanted to be alone. What a bastard.

Naruto frowned and hovered outside of the door, not really knowing what do to, but not really wanting to leave Sasuke alone.

Eventually, he heard the toilet flush, and then silence. He softly tapped his knuckles against the door.

"Sasuke? Can I come in?"

* * *

"Sasuke? Can I come in?"

Sasuke closed his eyes with a pained expression. The back of his throat still burned, but he didn't feel the nausea he once did—and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Leave me alone, Naruto," he answered, but there was no hostility in his voice.

"Please," he heard Naruto say, and he was undone.

He forced himself to stand, swaying a little on his feet, and unlocked the door. It swung open immediately, and Sasuke met Naruto's bright, wide, worried eyes, and had to look away.

"Excuse me," he said quietly, attempting to move past Naruto. Naruto let him, but grabbed onto his arm as he passed, leading him to his bed.

"You need to stop pushing yourself," Naruto pushed him onto the bed. "Are you feeling any better?"

"I'm fine."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Jesus, Sasuke," he sighed, "how much did you drink last night? You're never like this."

Sasuke gave him a vicious scowl and refused to answer.

"Have you had water since you threw up? Have some," Naruto stuck the glass in his face again.

But Sasuke could feel his patience being chipped away at each time Naruto tried to do something nice. He took the glass from Naruto, and placed it on the table without drinking it.

"I asked to be alone, Naruto."

"I know you did, but—"

"I didn't think it was that difficult of a request."

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're doing just fine on your own—"

"I am doing fine. It's when I'm not alone that there is a problem."

Naruto looked taken aback.

"Jeez, teme, you—"

"You're not understanding me, Naruto. I don't want you to be here. Leave me alone." Sasuke's blood felt like lava in the way it burned him—it was too much. It was all too much. He needed Naruto away—he needed Naruto to get away from him. Now.

Naruto backed up a couple steps.

"You're the one who asked me to live here, bastard."

"That's true," he had to lash out—it was the only way to be alone, he had to—"and right now, I regret it. Leave."

And Naruto did.

* * *

His breathing rushed and uneven, Naruto barely remembered to grab a jacket before he went out in the rain. He needed to walk for a while—weather be damned. He slammed the door behind him, silently cursing himself for falling for such a _fucking asshole_.

* * *

Sasuke blinked back to reality a moment after he heard the door slam, looking out at the rain outside. Well, it wasn't particularly bad, and Naruto obviously didn't mind—the blonde would be fine.

He repeated the thought to himself several times, willing it to push back the guilt that was building up inside of him.

Oh, fuck it—he was an asshole. There was a reason Sasuke could barely call anyone his friend, and the fact that Naruto had fought against it for as long as he had was incredible. But…

He couldn't keep acting like this and expect Naruto to come back. But maybe it would be for the best if he never did—Naruto could live his happy life with Sakura, away from Sasuke's passive-aggressive, petty comments. Maybe that would be for the best. This whole idea—the whole house—what had Sasuke honestly expected? That Naruto would stay single forever? That he would have a wife and kids but still live with Sasuke because Sasuke so desperately needed him?

He was pathetic. Completely and utterly pathetic.

* * *

Naruto thought about going back and getting his car as the rain started falling harder, but he didn't want to drive—he just needed to…walk. He just needed to keep moving. He didn't even really know where he was going, but he was pretty sure he could find his way home fine.

He really ought to have punched Sasuke in his stupid, stoic, asshole face—and he probably would have, if the Uchiha hasn't been so obviously unwell. A part of Naruto hoped he was speaking out of his bad mood—he probably was; it's not like that was atypical of Sasuke to do—but it didn't help Naruto feel any less pissed off.

But maybe Naruto was a little annoying. He could definitely get right up in people's faces, and it had been something that had annoyed Sasuke before…

Really, why was he getting so worked up about this? Sasuke had said worse to him…

…years ago, before he had considered them…before he had thought of Sasuke like…

Naruto sighed, and stopped walking, feeling the water soak through his coat.

This was so stupid. All of this. He never should have accepted Sasuke's offer in the first place—if he had just realized his feelings a little sooner, if he…

Well, that was useless now. He obviously hadn't realized, and now he was paying for it. Not that he felt particularly affectionate towards Sasuke right now—the guy could be such a _dick_ when he was lashing out…

Naruto let out another breath, and kept walking.

* * *

It took Sasuke a full four minutes to break and call Naruto.

He hit the dial button, waited a moment, and then cursed—the stupid idiot had left his phone in the house! He grabbed the phone from the pocket of the shorts that Naruto hadn't bothered moving from the floor, chugged as much water as he could from the bathroom, took some more painkillers, and then went out to look for the dobe.

Naruto was going to be the death of him.

* * *

A few blocks later, Naruto was starting to regret his decision. His anger was starting to wear off and the rain was only getting worse…he fought down a shiver, and looked around, trying to orient himself.

He had taken a left here—right?

* * *

Sasuke hadn't expected Naruto to go much further than their backyard, so when he didn't find the blonde right away, he started to panic.

His car was still here, but, there was a chance…

Kakashi and Iruka were too far to walk, but Sakura's house was—well, not convenient, but doable. With a grimace, he ran back inside, pulled out Naruto's phone and dialed her number.

"Naruto! Is everything good?"

"It's Sasuke."

"O-oh! Is everything okay?"

"Is Naruto with you?"

"Is—no, why would he be with me?" Before Sasuke could answer, she continued talking in a muffled voice—"one second, Lee, honey, it's Sasuke. Yes, I'll tell him. Okay—yes."

She giggled a little. "Lee wants me to tell you that he did a hundred push-ups as punishment for not being able to come to your youthful party last night. He had a shift—Naruto told you, right? He never takes work off because he wants to inherit the place—I can't imagine him not, but, well, you know."

She paused.

"Is everything okay with you and Naruto? Why are you calling from his phone?"

"I—he's not here."

"He's not…at his house?"

"No," Sasuke looked out the window again in hopes for a glimpse of blonde hair. Nothing.

"He left."

"He…left," Sakura sounded skeptical.

"Yes."

"Mhm. Alright, Uchiha, what did you do?"

"I didn't—"

"You did. What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Okay—whatever. How are you going to find him?"

"He—he hasn't gone to you?"

"No, Sasuke, I already said that. Why are you so sure he'd come here? He knew Lee and I had to…talk through some things."

"I thought you—but you and…Naruto…" Sasuke felt a sense of dread.

"Oh my god, Sasuke," Sakura sounded like she was reigning in her temper, "You don't remember, do you? I've been dating Lee for almost a year—I know you don't care about other people's social lives, but try to remember this one: I am not interested in Naruto and he is not interested in me."

"But—yesterday—" Sasuke closed his eyes, realizing the mistake he had made.

"Yesterday what? I talked to him? You know Naruto is an affectionate drunk. For god's sake Sasuke, if we wanted to date each other even the tiniest bit, we would have done it by now. Get it out of your head—and for that matter, get out and go find Naruto. And call me the moment you find him. Or call me if you don't, I can help—"

Sasuke hung up and ran to his car.

* * *

The rain was well and truly pouring now, and Naruto was cursing himself. He could barely see two feet in front of him, and everywhere he went seemed to have closed already. Even if he was somewhere he knew well, it would be near impossible to recognize it in this weather.

He sneezed—once, and then immediately again. He had already tried going back the way he thought he had come, but now he was doubting himself. Nothing seemed all that familiar—but surely he hadn't been gone for _that_ long, right?

Why hadn't he thought to bring his phone? He didn't even think he had his wallet on him—

He gave up on trying to orient himself as soon as he saw a section of dry concrete ahead of him, and he ran to huddle under the overhanging roof. He hadn't seen another car in ages, but that wasn't surprising; it was such a rich neighbourhood that everyone had these huge bits of land—everything was super spread apart, so there weren't that many people until you got to the city. He peered into the window of the building behind him, squinting against the glass.

It looked totally dark, but he tried the door just to be sure—just his luck. It looked like a restaurant—surely it should still be open? He had no idea what time it was without his phone, but the sun was still up—what kind of restaurant would be closed already?

' _Butter Crunch Brunch! The best brunch in town~'_

He groaned.

* * *

It had been at least half an hour of Sasuke—driving at a snail's pace with his windshield wipers in overdrive—fruitlessly searching the streets.

The biggest problem is that he had no idea which way Naruto had gone—so for all he knew, he was going completely the wrong way. He smashed his fist against the steering wheel with a snarl.

Where was he?!

* * *

The rain wasn't going away.

And Naruto definitely wasn't getting any warmer under here—he already far too soaked through to appreciate being in a dry area.

Naruto let out a puff of air, shook himself, and stepped back out into the rain. At least this way he could keep moving.

* * *

Sasuke had finally bit the bullet and done a U-turn. On his way back, he pulled up beside their driveway—just in case—and unlocked the door to call for Naruto.

One—two—three times—

No answer.

Sasuke ran back to his car.

* * *

There! Wasn't that a bus stop? That was something!

He ran into the small glass hut for shelter, breathing heavily. At least he could wait here for some sort of bus to take him somewhere—or better yet, he could use someone's phone on the bus.

He heaved a sigh of relief as he fell onto the bench, taking off his useless jacket and rolling up his pant legs as much as he could. He squeezed out what water he could from himself, but it didn't do much.

Naruto shuddered. He could almost see his breath in front of his face…he hoped a bus got here soon.

* * *

Sasuke had to continually and forcefully remind himself to slow down so that he wouldn't just drive past Naruto if he came across him. He kept getting distracted imagining where Naruto was and what he would do when he found him—

This would happen to him, honestly, the damn dobe. He only hoped Naruto had found some sort of shelter and was waiting for the weather to let up, but knowing Naruto, it was more likely the dobe was still trudging through the puddles, lost somewhere.

He let out a frustrated sigh and stepped on the brake—there he went again, lost in his own head and not paying attention to the side of the road for any flash of blonde he could—

Wait a second.

Sasuke screeched the car to a stop, doing a double take to where he had sworn he saw—he couldn't quite tell now, but—

He got out of the car, holding his jacket over his head and jogged to the bus stop. There, in the midst of soaked clothes, was a huddled Naruto, clad in nothing but his pants. He stared at Sasuke in wonder.

"You fucking idiot," Sasuke breathed, reaching out for him.

"T-teme," Naruto chattered.

"C'mon," he said, pulling off his jacket and putting it on Naruto. Naruto hugged it to himself and slipped his shoes on, not bothering with his socks. Sasuke quickly grabbed everything he had scattered around, and pulled Naruto close to him. Naruto didn't protest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought of this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed :) 
> 
> For the record, I did start writing a Halloween oneshot and then it turned into actual plot ;_; So I'll attempting to finish that up over the next few days. Whoops!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	7. Warming Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters!

Sasuke practically carried Naruto up the stairs with the way he pushed him. He wanted to get Naruto warm as soon as possible, and that meant getting him dry as soon as possible.

Or, maybe…

"Do you want to take a bath? Like a hot one?"

"Sure, y-yeah," Naruto was obviously still cold and uncomfortable, but Sasuke had blasted the heat in the car and that had seemed to help a little.

"Okay," Sasuke said, following him into the bathroom. Naruto pulled the curtain closed and passed him his wet clothes through it, and Sasuke left to go throw everything into the dryer.

He had no qualms in going back to the bathroom afterwards; modesty be damned, he had to make sure his dobe was okay.

Apparently, Naruto had no qualms either, because he had the curtain pulled back and made no move to close it when Sasuke entered. He was slouched so his knees were poking out of the tub, but everything else, up to right below his nose, was covered by the water.

"Is it warm enough?" Sasuke stayed far enough away that he couldn't see in the water—he would still respect Naruto's privacy as much as he could…and now really, really wasn't the time to start fighting his attraction to the blonde again.

Naruto nodded, his eyes drifting closed.

Sasuke hesitated for a moment, and then pooled a towel next to the tub to sit down on. His hangover had, for the most part, passed, but now he was coming down from quite the adrenaline rush. He let out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and let his head rest against the wall.

"Sorry," he heard, and he opened his eyes to see Naruto, head resting against the side of the tub, looking at him with serious eyes. Sasuke felt his heart rate rise.

"It's my fault," Sasuke looked away. He could never lie to those eyes.

Sasuke heard the water splash as Naruto shifted.

"It's your fault I went out in the rain?" Naruto gave a little snort, "like an idiot?"

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them, still looking away.

"I don't—I didn't mean it when I said I didn't want you to live here. I do."

Sasuke was startled when Naruto just…laughed.

"I know that, teme. I was just pissed and wanted to burn the energy off or somethin'."

"You," Sasuke looked at him, "what?"

Naruto just grinned, having shifted so that his arms were folded over the ledge of the tub, and his chin was resting on them.

"I wasn't really thinking," he offered. "Or I would have taken my phone with me…"

"Oh—fuck," Sasuke suddenly remembered he needed to call Sakura before she sent out a search party. Luckily, he still had Naruto's phone.

"Hello—Sasuke? Did you find him?"

"I found him."

He ignored Naruto's curious gaze.

"Thank god. Jesus, Sasuke, don't scare me like that again. Can you pass the phone to him?"

He held out the phone to Naruto.

"Sakura wants to talk to you."

"You talked to Sakura?" Naruto's eyebrows were raised, but he dutifully dried his hands and took the phone. Sasuke didn't answer him.

"Hey," he greeted quietly.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you complete and utter moron."

Sasuke smirked when he saw Naruto cringe. Good—Sakura would make sure he wouldn't do anything like this again.

"Now—I admit I still have next to no idea what happened, but what I do know is that I had Uchiha—fucking—Sasuke call me in a complete flustered panic, demanding to know if you had come here. First of all, what on earth possessed you to go running off—and second of all, why the fuck didn't you take your phone with you?!"

"I—uh—" Naruto grimaced a little, "sorry, Sakura, I didn't really…think…"

He heard her sigh on the other end.

"Sasuke's still in the room with you, isn't he?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay. Then tell me everything later—I assume he must have been some sort of legendary asshole to get you to leave like that."

"Not—not really," he admitted, "it wasn't like that."

"Uh-huh," she didn't sound like she believed him. "Tell me later anyways. For the record, though, PLEASE do not leave me with him as my only way of knowing if you're okay or not—he literally hung up on me as soon as he could and didn't reply until now. I've been running around the house in a complete panic."

"Sorry," he offered again.

"Uh-huh," she said, "you're going to need to pass that on to Lee, too, because he's been trying to calm me down for the past two hours. Anyways, I'll let you and Sasuke get back to yelling at each other or whatever you do when you're alone—but first, you really ought to know that he was _convinced_ we were dating."

"We—what?"

"I don't know. He said something about yesterday. I figured you should know."

"But—you're with Lee—"

Sasuke suddenly really regretted passing the phone to Naruto.

"I know that, you know that—he, apparently, didn't. I don't know. But you should talk to him about it before we get into any misunderstandings, okay? He'll believe you more than he'll believe me."

"Yeah, yeah—okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, cool. Work it out, you two."

"Mhmm," Naruto said noncommittally.

"Glad you're okay, Naruto."

"Thanks, Sakura. Me too," he laughed a little, "I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. Bye!"

"Bye," he hung up, and passed the phone back to Sasuke, but not before giving him an utterly disbelieving look.

"Me and Sakura? Really?"

"I—"

"She started dating Lee like a year ago, you dunce." Naruto had a wide, sleepy grin on his face, and he slumped further down into the water again.

"I assumed they broke up." Sasuke was scowling. Naruto snickered.

"Not likely. Those two are gonna get married and have lots of loud, youthful babies." He giggled to himself again.

"You sound like you're drunk."

"'m just sleepy. Why'd you think we were dating?"

"I—it doesn't matter. It was a misunderstanding."

"What'd we do to misunderstand?" Naruto furrowed his brow, "I guess we were together a lot, but she was try'na help me find you…"

Sasuke felt worse.

Naruto blinked slowly a few times, and then shook his head. He really didn't want to fall asleep in the middle of this; he forced himself to sit up and took a deep breath in.

"Whew," Naruto rubbed at his face. Sasuke very intently looked away from the water droplets sliding down Naruto's chest.

"The water's making me sleepy," Naruto explained unnecessarily, "and you still haven't answered the question."

"Naruto…"

"What? 'm I being annoying again?" He tilted his head from where it leaned on the tile just enough to look at Sasuke with hooded eyes.

"You weren't being annoying," Sasuke was frowning.

"Wasn't I?" His eyes opened just a little wider. "I thought that's what pissed you off."

"No, I was pissed off because I was pissed off. It wasn't anything you did."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"…you're so confusing," Naruto shifted in the water again. "I'm gonna drain out some water. It's getting cold."

"I could boil some water for you, if you'd like," Sasuke offered.

"Nah, that's okay," Naruto had already moved to pull the plug, "I'll just refill it with the hottest this can go."

They didn't talk over the rushing water, but as soon as Naruto turned the tap off, he spun back around to face him.

"You keep distracting me," he said, looking playful and wet and gorgeous and _why_ was Sasuke looking at him—

"Why d'you keep avoiding the question about me and Sakura? I'm more curious about it than anything else—I don't want anyone else to think the same thing, y'know."

"They won't. I just jumped to conclusions, Naruto. It was my fault."

"Sasukeeeee," Naruto whined, "you're just making me even more curious!"

Sasuke sighed.

"Please?"

Sasuke felt incredibly awkward. "It's nothing like—I just…saw the two of you come out of your bedroom. Holding hands." He cleared his throat. "And I jumped to conclusions."

There was a moment of silence, and then Naruto started snickering. Sasuke rolled his eyes, fighting down the embarrassment because really, he deserved to be laughed at.

"You're such a _bastard_ ," Naruto flicked water from his hand onto Sasuke face, making Sasuke flinch away. He scowled and wiped at his face. Naruto just smiled fondly.

"You could have just asked, y'know."

Sasuke only shrugged. As if he would ever willingly bring up who Naruto wanted to or was dating.

"I don't like Sakura like that. Not since I met you, anyways."

Sasuke's head snapped up. That had almost sounded like…

"I had a crush on her in middle school. A bit in high school too, I think. I was way over it by the time I got to university and met you." _'And then I fell for you instead, you stupid jerk.'_

Sasuke nodded and looked away. He hated how easily his hopes went up.

"Have _you_ ever had a crush?" Naruto leaned up against the side of the tub with a teasing grin.

In a moment of madness, Sasuke spoke.

"Yes."

"Y-yes?!" A bunch of water splashed out of the tub as Naruto adjusted himself to look at Sasuke better. "What—really? Who?"

' _You.'_

Sasuke just rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm madly in love," he forced as much sarcasm into his voice as he could, "I can barely sleep because I'm ever so wild with desire—"

"Okay, okay, asshole," Naruto settled back down with a pout, "I get it."

Sasuke just smirked, finding some sort of sadistic pleasure in having the truth be so unbelievable to Naruto that he dismissed it without a thought.

"Well _I_ have a crush," Naruto said with a grin, "and I'm not gonna tell you anything about it. So there."

' _Please don't.'_

"What a tragedy," Sasuke deadpanned.

"You're all wrinkled," Sasuke continued before Naruto could, "you should get out soon. You've been wet for long enough."

"Ah, yeah, I guess so," Naruto conceded, "okay."

Sasuke nodded and stood, stretching his spine a little. Naruto watched him walk away with sad eyes.

* * *

Their partition door was wide open, so when Naruto exited wearing nothing but a towel, Sasuke was able to see the entire, glorious view. The blonde seemed to notice, and he gave Sasuke a sheepish smile.

"I didn't have any dry clothes in there," he explained. Sasuke nodded, eyes hungrily raking up and down Naruto's tanned skin before he forced himself to look away and leave the room.

Naruto watched him for a moment. If he hadn't known any better, he could have sworn that Sasuke had just been…checking him out.

But that was impossible…obviously just wishful thinking on Naruto's part. He sighed softly, eyes downcast.

Sasuke—the guy could be so cold sometimes, and then he would turn around and do something incredibly nice. Like spend two hours driving around in the rain, desperately trying to find Naruto—and then sit with him, next to the bathtub, and offer to boil water just in case the bath wasn't the perfect temperature...

He smiled a little to himself. At least he knew the teme gave a crap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys dizzy yet? ;) Thank you all so much for reading!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	8. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters!

Later on, Sasuke was doing some work on his computer, and Naruto had taken over his bed with his own laptop.

"Hm, Sasuke?" He said, after a while of working in silence.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever had a guy hit on you?"

"Have I—what?"

"Well, 'cause you're always getting all these girls' numbers. I was just wondering if it's the same for guys, too, and I just haven't noticed."

Sasuke snorted.

"Don't laugh! I just wanna know!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned his chair to fully face Naruto, resting one ankle up on the opposite leg and leaning back.

"Yes," he answered honestly, "I have been hit on by a guy. Why do you ask?"

"Really?! What did you say? Where was I during all this? Did I not even notice? I feel like I didn't even notice…"

Sasuke snorted again.

"You weren't with me, Naruto," he said, and turned back to his desk.

"Really? But it was after we met? Where were you?"

"I was," he held his eyes closed for just a moment longer than strictly necessary, "at a gay bar. And yes, it was during university."

"You went to a gay bar near the university?!" Naruto's laptop was all but forgotten, "when was this? _Where_ was this? Who paid you to go?"

Naruto laughed at his own joke, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Yes. Second year. Few blocks past the make-your-own-burger place. No one."

"You went on your own free will? _Why?_ " Naruto sounded incredulous.

Sasuke made the mistake of meeting Naruto's eyes. He swallowed nervously and looked away quickly, but the damage had been done.

"Because," he braced himself, "I'm gay."

Naruto stared at him.

Sasuke shifted awkwardly, and cleared his throat, making a show of getting back to work.

"Wha—I—how have I never heard about this?!" Naruto, to his credit, only sounded a little taken aback.

"About the gay bar? Or about my sexual preferences?"

"Both!"

"Well," he started, "the bar was terrible, for one. I don't know what possessed me to go there," he scratched at his chin, thinking back… that wasn't entirely honest—it had been a particularly emotional night for Sasuke after Naruto had drunkenly hooked up with some girl in their room and Sasuke had just needed to convince himself that someone—anyone—else existed, "and you never asked."

"You never told me!"

Sasuke scoffed.

"Well, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically, looking back at Naruto, "is it something I'm supposed to announce when I first meet someone? Hello, I'm Sasuke, I'm gay?"

Naruto laughed. "I just—it seems like the sorta thing I should've known by now. Damn."

"Hn," Sasuke responded.

Naruto sat up on his knees near the edge of the bed.

"So, d'you have a boyfriend then? I've only ever asked you about girls."

"Yes, yes, I do," Sasuke said dryly, "and he's going to be absolutely furious that I have another man in my bed."

Naruto's smile faltered. "You—what?"

Sasuke blinked and looked back at him. He looked…genuinely upset.

"Jesus, Naruto, I was kidding. No one's going to come beat you up."

"I—oh," Naruto laughed, trying to mask the relief on his face, "yeah, I knew that! As if they could!"

"Sure," Sasuke said doubtfully. Naruto gave him a playful glare.

"What brought this on, anyways?"

"I—uh," Naruto grabbed his laptop and turned it so the screen faced Sasuke.

"I think a guy's hitting on me. He's from work, his name's Sai."

Sasuke frowned and leaned forwards to read the conversation. His frown deepened into an angry scowl very quickly.

"Is he? I'm not being weird here, right?"

Sasuke let out some air in an attempt to calm himself. It sounded like a hiss.

"No, you're not being weird. That definitely reads like flirting."

"Okay," Naruto ran a hand through his hair. "Uh, I have no idea what to do."

"Tell him you're not interested."

"What, just—flat out, like that? Won't that sound like…super self-absorbed or something?"

Sasuke gave him a look.

Naruto grinned. "Okay, but you can get away with it because you have a _reason_ to be super self-absorbed."

Sasuke felt his cheeks heat up at the indirect compliment.

"Dobe. You have a reason, too," he said quietly.

Naruto blinked, feeling himself become warm, and gave a shy smile. He fought the urge to bite his lip.

Sasuke cleared his throat.

"Anyways," the Uchiha said.

"Ah—right," Naruto blushed, "Sai. Um. Should I just tell him I have a boyfriend?"

Sasuke stared at him. "Boyfriend? Why not a girlfriend?"

Naruto froze.

"Uh—"

There was a pause.

"Right," Naruto said awkwardly, "that would be smarter."

Sasuke eyed him.

"Uh, Naruto? Wouldn't it be even smarter to just tell him you don't swing that way instead? So you don't have to lie?"

"A-ah," Naruto scratched the back of his head, "right. Yeah."

Naruto turned his laptop and poised his fingers over the keyboard, and then pulled them back. This was—it was pretty much straight up lying to Sasuke if he didn't tell him, and he didn't want to do that.

"Um, except—" he looked over at Sasuke, who was watching him with one elegant eyebrow raised. "I will be lying. So, uh, yeah."

He looked away before he finished, and went back to pretending he was trying to decide what to tell Sai—and then his laptop was unceremoniously snatched from under his fingers.

"Hey!"

Sasuke had the laptop in one hand and he fixed Naruto with a dark stare.

"You're straight," he said.

"Uh—well, not exactly..."

"Yes, you are."

"No, Sasuke—"

"I've lived with you for years. You're straight."

"Well—yeah, I've never hooked up with a guy, but—"

Sasuke glared at him.

"I like both! I like girls and guys. I've just never dated a guy, okay? But I don't have like—a preference, I don't think. I might, I dunno."

Sasuke snapped Naruto's laptop shut and put it on his desk, leaning back in his chair. Naruto couldn't read his expression.

"You're bisexual."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Yeah. Can I have my computer back?"

"No. What do you mean, you guess?"

"Sasuke—I don't," he swallowed, "I don't really wanna talk about it. Sorry."

There was a pause where Naruto very intently stared down at his lap.

"Hn," Sasuke threw the laptop onto the bed and turned back to his work. He ignored the pain in his chest.

"Thanks," Naruto said quietly, pulling his computer forward. Sasuke didn't reply, only starting to type again with a vicious scowl. Naruto watched him for a moment, feeling guilty.

"What should I tell Sai?" He threw a hesitant grin in Sasuke's direction, trying to change the subject. Sasuke's typing paused, and then continued at the same pace. He didn't respond.

Naruto's smile faltered and he sighed.

"Now you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad," Sasuke lied, still not looking at Naruto.

Naruto gave a disbelieving laugh.

"Yeah…I," Naruto nervously picked at the blankets, "it's—it's a recent thing for me, Sasuke. It's a bit too new for me to talk about it comfortably. Is that okay?" He technically wasn't _lying_ —he had only really pinned down his feelings for Sasuke that summer, although, looking back, he was sure he had felt them for a few years now…

"Does anyone else know?"

"Sakura does. She knew before I did," he laughed. "That's it though. And you, now."

That made Sasuke feel a little better. He was still reeling at the fact that Naruto wasn't ruler straight, but—that—in the end, that really didn't mean much. It was just another way life was taunting him—dangling something he could never have in front of his face, again and again.

"No one else knows about the bar," Sasuke offered quietly—his way of apologizing. Naruto laughed.

"I can't _believe—_! I wish I would have been there."

_'So do I.'_

A thought seemed to occur in Naruto's head, from the way his expression froze and he turned to gape at Sasuke.

"W-wait, you didn't like…hook up with anyone, did you?"

Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"How did you figure out you weren't straight?" He countered.

"That's not fair!" Naruto said, panicking both from Sasuke's question and his non-answer.

"I've told you more than you've told me," Sasuke pointed out—which, Naruto supposed, was _technically_ true.

"Okay—maybe, but ask me something else, then," there was no way in _hell_ Naruto would tell Sasuke it was him that made Naruto realize his sexuality wasn't as rigid as he previously believed.

"Hm. Fine." Sasuke thought for a moment.

"If you aren't opposed to dating men, what's stopping you from dating this—Sai?"

Naruto looked taken aback.

"I guess—I didn't really think about it. Huh…"

Sasuke wanted to slap himself.

"Well don't date him just for the sake of it," he said quickly, scowling at Naruto's thoughtful look.

But now that Naruto thought about it, maybe it would be good to go on a date with Sai. Not even Sai—just, anyone else. Someone to get his mind off of Sasuke—it wouldn't have to be anything serious, but…then again, that wasn't really fair to Sai…Naruto grimaced.

"Don't hurt yourself, dobe."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto broke out of his thoughts to give Sasuke a playful glare, "don't be a jerk. I dunno. Maybe I'll date Sai."

"Don't."

Naruto blinked at him. Sasuke, as usual, was scowling.

"If you had to convince yourself to consider it, you're obviously not interested."

"It's not that," Naruto felt the nerves rush through him; he was dancing dangerously close to the truth here, "it's more…there's someone else that I am," he cleared his throat, "interested in. And I don't think it would be fair to Sai."

Sasuke felt his blood freeze.

"I see," he said, and he turned back to his computer—but he may as well have been blind for all he was paying attention to what was on the screen. His chest felt stiff and tight, as if it was full of something and ready to burst.

"Teme!" Naruto practically yelled. Sasuke flinched and turned back to him.

"Jesus, I've been calling your name for the past minute. You in there?" He grinned, and Sasuke felt helpless.

"You don't get to quit before you answer your question, you cheater," Naruto teased. Sasuke felt a wave of fatigue overtake him.

"What was the question?"

"If you hooked up with someone at the gay bar!" The answer was obviously no, but it was fun to—

"Yes."

"…y—what?"

"Yes," Sasuke had already turned back to face his computer. "I did."

_'I found the first tanned blonde I could, and then I hated myself.'_

Naruto felt a surge of jealousy spike through him—he had no right to it, but it echoed through his veins all the same.

"Who was he?" Naruto had lost his smile, Sasuke noticed. He wished it would come back.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I don't remember."

"Were you that drunk?"

"No. I just didn't care."

Naruto's eyebrows nearly rose into his hair.

"Damn. That's cold."

Sasuke scoffed. "I'm sure he didn't mind."

Naruto shifted, uncomfortable. "I guess."

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, and then sighed.

"Why are you looking like that? Does the thought of me being sexual offend you that much?"

_'If it's not with me.'_

"No—I," Naruto bit his lip, "sorry. I'm just…surprised."

But he didn't look surprised—Naruto had been surprised when Sasuke had said he was gay. This was different.

"No, you're not. You're offended," Sasuke faced Naruto fully, arms crossed.

Naruto glanced up and him and then grimaced. He didn't know how to answer that without blatantly lying—he was incredibly jealous—offended in the most irrational way—that anyone else had put their hands on Sasuke. Put their hands _all over_ Sasuke. He hated the thought—he _hated_ it!

"Are you sure you're not straight?" Sasuke pushed, "you seem awfully uncomfortable with the thought of two men together."

"It's not just two men," Naruto rubbed at his temples, "it's _you_. I'm just…"

Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Nevermind. Can we talk about something else?"

"Nope. This is my question."

Naruto groaned.

"Ask me a different one," he pleaded.

"Naruto," Sasuke shifted in his chair, and it rolled forwards a little, "no. I want to—I need to know if this is something you're going to be uncomfortable with."

"I…" Naruto sighed. "Fine. Yeah. I'm uncomfortable."

Sasuke looked stricken, and he turned his head away. He knew he shouldn't have told Naruto. He _knew_ it was dumb—why had he done this? Why did he always sabotage himself like this?

"But not—not the way you think. I promise." It seemed no matter what Naruto said, he was going to damage their friendship somehow. He looked at Sasuke, dejected. The black-haired man obviously didn't believe him.

"Damn it all," he whispered, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "You're really going to make me do this, aren't you?"

Naruto kept his eyes closed when he heard Sasuke shift, presumably to look at him.

"You're a smart enough guy," Naruto gave a slightly hysterical laugh, "you can probably piece this one together."

He paused, steeled himself, and then continued.

"I've figured out that I'm bi, in spite of the fact that I've never dated a man. I'm interested in someone—someone I obviously don't think I'll be able to date. And," he continued quietly, "I'm _uncomfortable_ at the thought of you with another man."

In the midst of Naruto's nerves, the silence sounded like thunder—lightening striking right through his chest and booming through his entire body. He forced himself to breathe, but couldn't quite get to opening his eyes.

This was it—he almost wished Sasuke would just punch him already and get it over with. He just hoped Sasuke wouldn't feel like this ruined their friendship; he knew how much Sasuke hated it when people were interested in him. He knew how he reacted, and it was never kind. But it was a better alternative to Sasuke thinking that Naruto was somehow _disgusted_ by him.

He felt a pressure on the bed—and then another—and then his eyes sprang open.

Sasuke was kissing him.

Sasuke was _kissing_ him.

Sasuke was—o-oh…

The Uchiha pulled away, and Naruto could not have fought the smile that spread across his face if he had all the strength in the world.

"I'm a smart enough guy," he said, breathless. "Did I figure it out?"

Naruto laughed and pulled him in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! Only one more chapter after this one, and it's really more of a bonus :P I hope this chapter made you smile!
> 
> \- Kinomi


	9. Yours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters!
> 
> A/N: The last chapter is finally here! I really hope you liked the story!

Sasuke followed Naruto's guidance and moved smoothly to straddle him. Naruto ran his hands over Sasuke's chest, and back, and through his hair, and—ah…

Sasuke had moved down to kiss his neck, sending electricity shooting through his body. He arched into Sasuke's touch, feeling the Uchiha smirk against his skin—probably in response to the noises he was making, but as if he could help it—and pulled him up for another kiss. Their kisses were hungry—desperate—as if both of them were sure they would never get another one after it ended.

Sasuke's hands pushed up at Naruto's shirt, memorizing the skin underneath—Naruto responded by grabbing Sasuke's shirt at the bottom and pulling, giving Sasuke just enough time to break the kiss before his shirt was lost to the floor. Naruto's shirt quickly followed, and by then, they had been apart for far too long.

Sasuke made it his mission to lick and suck every part of Naruto's exposed chest, taking some extra time, when he was feeling particularly bold, to trace a path from the blonde's belly button, to the hem of his pants. He kissed alongside the fabric, holding Naruto's hips down all the while.

"F-fuck, Sasuke," Naruto moaned, and that was all it took. Sasuke had Naruto's dick in his mouth within seconds.

Naruto's eyes widened and he grasped wildly around himself, desperately trying to find something to cling to—anything to control himself. Sasuke reoriented his grip on Naruto's hips, savouring the way it felt to hold this sort of power over him. Each shudder sent a thrill down his spine—he wasn't exactly surprised that Naruto was vocal in the bedroom, but he had severely underestimated what it would do to him, knowing he was the source of those sounds—hearing his name come from those gorgeous lips…

He paused to tease the tip of Naruto's cock, mainly so he could get a better look at him. Naruto's eyes opened—the normally bright blue now hooded with lust and desire—and Sasuke smirked, and took Naruto in his mouth fully. Naruto groaned, and collapsed back against the pillows—

"Sa—ah—Sasuke," he gasped, "I'm not going to be able to—it's—too much, I—"

Sasuke's only response was to tighten his grip on Naruto's hips, his excitement feeding off of Naruto's, moving in rhythm faster, and faster, until—

"Sa—I—oh god, oh god, yes—fuck yes!"

Sasuke let out a moan—stifled by Naruto's cock—and moved in time with the pulses he felt—once, twice, a third time—

Naruto shuddered, and collapsed into the bed, watching Sasuke as he swallowed and crawled over top of him.

"Move with me," Sasuke whispered in his ear, and Naruto could only obey.

He could still feel the echos of his orgasm surging through him. He pulled Sasuke down to kiss him and wrapped his legs around Sasuke's, forcing their hips together.

Sasuke's kisses spiked in intensity as soon as they started moving—he kissed desperately, ferociously—Naruto loved every second of it.

Suddenly, Sasuke pulled away—just enough so Naruto could look at him properly—his dark eyes widened, and he gasped for air, digging his hands into Naruto so hard it hurt—

And then, it seemed, he couldn't hold on for any longer, and he collapsed forwards with a low groan. Naruto held onto him and kept them moving as he felt Sasuke's hot liquid splash onto his stomach—each thrust together was another sigh of pleasure, until Sasuke's arms shook, and he let himself fall on top of Naruto.

* * *

For a few minutes, they just laid there. There was something perfect in that moment, and neither of them wanted to break it—content just to catch their breath in each other's arms.

But, far too soon, Naruto started feeling itchy and uncomfortable—and apparently Sasuke did too, because he pulled up as well.

"We should get cleaned up," he said quietly.

Naruto gave him a tired grin, not moving.

"Then clean me," he said, spreading himself out like a starfish on Sasuke's bed. Sasuke looked at him with an expression so full of warmth that his breath caught, and he was struck with such an overwhelming urge to kiss him that his body almost moved on its own.

"You're going to get my bed dirty," he said, once they pulled apart.

"You're going to get your own bed dirty," Naruto waggled his eyebrows.

Sasuke blushed, and Naruto grinned in victory, and then swaggered off to the bathroom. It took about thirty seconds for Sasuke to follow him in.

Naruto gave him a bright grin, about to step into the shower.

"Wanna join?"

Sasuke didn't need to.

He did anyways.

* * *

After a shower that took far longer that it ought to have (due to all the wet, naked kissing), it was something like two or three in the morning, and in spite of the adrenaline and excitement, both boys were yawning.

It went unspoken that they were staying the night in Sasuke's bed. But even after they laid down together, set their alarms and pulled the covers up—neither of them could seem to sleep.

Naruto rolled over to face Sasuke, whose eyes were already open, watching him. A bubble of happiness erupted in Naruto's chest, and he smiled so wide his cheeks hurt. He couldn't help it. This was—this was more than he had ever dreamed of. So much more.

"Dobe," Sasuke whispered. Naruto stuck his arms on either side of Sasuke's head and kissed him—on the lips, his cheeks, his nose—he felt Sasuke smile under his kisses, and he pulled back to rest their foreheads together. He loved seeing Sasuke smile.

"Teme."

There was a beat.

"So me and Sakura, huh?"

Sasuke pulled away, groaning. Naruto snickered.

"Shut up," Sasuke mumbled, hands over his face.

"Wait," Naruto's eyes opened wide, "you said you weren't interested in anyone!"

"Did I?"

"Yeah!" Naruto's expression was teasing, but his eyes were serious, "when I asked you if you had a crush, or…"

"Mhm," Sasuke acknowledged, "and what did I say?"

"You…" He sat up, and leaning over Sasuke. Dark eyes met his own, and they urged him to continue.

"You said you…" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "Weren't you being sarcastic?"

Sasuke couldn't bring himself to look away from those eyes. He stayed quiet.

Naruto leaned in closer to him. "Are you _madly_ in love?" He whispered.

Sasuke refused to look away. Naruto's held such intensity that he didn't think he could.

"Do I drive you _wild_ with desire?" He smirked—and it was such a good look on him that Sasuke couldn't wait a moment longer, and pulled him down for a kiss.

It was a good thing they didn't have to work tomorrow—by the time they collapsed together, all of their energy spent, the sun had started streaming through the blinds. Naruto kissed Sasuke's chest one last time, and then promptly passed out, with half of his body still on top of Sasuke. Sasuke fell asleep feeling warmer than he ever had before.

* * *

When Naruto awoke—alone—he was half-convinced the entire last day had been a dream. Only the fact that he was in Sasuke's bed convinced him otherwise. Yawning, he got out of bed—he had no idea what time it was, but he needed to talk to Sakura.

* * *

"You—wait, say that again,"

"Uh," Naruto swallowed, "well I didn't like—officially ask him out or anything, but, uh, we—"

"You hooked up, oh my god,"

"Sa—"

"Fucking FINALLY!" Naruto cringed and yanked the phone away from his ear.

"Ow," he muttered.

"Thank god! Oh, I have to tell Lee," she sounded breathless. Naruto panicked.

"No! No, don't tell Lee!"

"Why?"

"I—Lee will tell _everyone_. I don't—I haven't talked to Sasuke about—I don't even know what—"

"Relax, Naruto," she interrupted, "I get it. This is all pretty new and you need to let it sink in a little."

"Yeah," Naruto said, relieved, "yeah, exactly."

"And you're worried about scaring Sasuke away."

"…yeah," his voice was almost a whisper.

"You're an idiot."

"Hey!"

"You are. You—" she sighed, "no, you should talk to Sasuke about this. All of it; everything you're feeling."

"R-really? Sasuke's not really the…talking type…"

"Not when it comes to the rest of us, no," she conceded, "but it's you. I think you'll be surprised."

"I—"

"I think he really likes you, Naruto," she said. "I've always told you that."

"Yeah, you have."

"But you still don't believe it."

There was a pause.

"I want to," Naruto said finally, "I really, really do. But—it…it just seems…"

"Too good to be true?"

"Yeah. Exactly. It's—it's impossible. He could—he could have _anyone_ , and I'm…"

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Talk to him. Please."

"…okay."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise. I'll talk to Sasuke."

"Talk to me about what?" Naruto spun around, nearly dropping his phone. Sasuke had chosen the perfect moment to walk in.

"Sasuke! I—uh,"

"Is Sasuke there?" Sakura's voice echoed from the phone. "I'll go then. Keep me updated, Naruto!"

"Ah—okay, I will. Thanks, Sakura."

"Of course."

They hung up, and Naruto put his phone on the table, looking at Sasuke nervously. The Uchiha simply leaned against the wall, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised.

"Uh," Naruto swallowed nervously, "I just wanted to…talk to Sakura—y'know, to tell her about…us," his eyes flickered to Sasuke's, gauging his reaction. Sasuke looked impassive, as usual.

"She knew about my, uh, feelings—for you," Naruto scratched the back of his neck, "she's who I went to about that stuff. I—hope that's okay."

"You called her to talk about your feelings for me?" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto blushed. "Something like that."

"Hm," Sasuke moved closer, "so why did she want you to talk to me?"

"That—oh," Naruto smiled nervously, "I wanted to check—with you, before I started, y'know, telling people stuff…about us…"

"You wanted to check what? What you could say?"

Naruto nodded.

Sasuke shrugged. "You can say what you want. I don't mind."

"O-oh," for some reason, Sasuke's answer left Naruto feeling disappointed. "Okay. Thanks."

Naruto went to move past him through the doorway, but Sasuke stopped him.

"As long as you make it clear," he moved close to Naruto, gripping his sleeve, "that you're mine."

Naruto's breath hitched. Sasuke let go of his sleeve, and moved past him, feeling awkward in the silence.

"O-oi, teme," Naruto reached out and spun him around, "you're mine too, you know!"

Naruto's eyebrows were furrowed and he looked oddly serious.

"You idiot," Sasuke leaned forward and kissed him, "I've always been yours."

**Fin.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! I am always open to little extras, though! I really hope you enjoyed this one :)
> 
> And with that, no more daily updates! But keep an eye out; I have two in the works and one of them is almost ready to be posted.
> 
> Until then,
> 
> \- Kinomi


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